Caustic comedy

When two couples clash, brutal laughs result in Peppermint Creek Theatre Co.’s ‘God of Carnage’

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We seem to live in an age when uncouth behavior isshowcased and celebrated across the reality-TV spectrum — and audiencescan’t get enough of it. It’s clear there is fun to be had in watchingpeople behaving badly. That is exactly what director Chad Badgero iscounting on.

Badgero is at the helm of “God of Carnage,” the pointedcomedy of manners from Peppermint Creek Theatre Co., opening Thursday.Of course, the troupe is billing it as a comedy of manners — withoutthe manners.

 “We’re all sowrapped up in this idea of political correctness, but this looks atwhat bubbles under the surface of that,” said Badgero, PeppermintCreek’s founder and artistic director. “We all have things we want tosay but don’t.  What happens when we do?”

Yazmina Reza’s play begins with a seemingly innocuouspremise: Two sets of Brooklyn parents meet to discuss a playgroundaltercation between their 11-year-old sons. An evening that beginsunder a banner of diplomacy quickly spirals into unpleasantness astensions flare and facades crumble.

“The genius thing that (Reza) has done is to show howthey all start off very adult — very polite, very refined — but by theend they’re behaving exactly like kids themselves,” Badgero said.

Reza wrote “Carnage” in French, which is how it wasperformed in its initial stagings in Zurich and Paris. The play wastranslated by playwright/screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“LesLiaisons Dangereuses,” “Atonement”) for its London premiere, whichstarred Ralph Fiennes. The 2009 Broadway production, starring JeffDaniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, collectedTony awards for best play and best leading actress in a play (forHarden). The feature film adaptation, which stars Jodie Foster, KateWinslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly, opens in December.

The Peppermint Creek cast stars Blake Bowen, HeatherLewis, Allan I. Ross and Shannon Rafferty, and Badgero praises theactors for tackling such heated but humorous material

 “They’ve really grasped and enjoyed the concept in rehearsals.  They really all push each other to a nice, fun extreme.”

Although the behaviors on display are often unlikeable, the director doesn’t think of the characters as bad people by any means.

 “The way theybreak each other down is surprising — you’re definitely shocked by someof things they say to each other,” he said.  “But they’re just ordinary parents.  Good parents — just very different parents.”

Badgero thinks that despite such pointed subject matter,“Carnage” will offer audiences a chance to see a lighter side ofPeppermint Creek, a troupe known for tackling frequently serious andcontroversial material in its shows.

 “It is thought-provoking, but it is really very funny,” he said.  “Itdoesn’t get darker so much as it gets ruder, more crass, more unguardedas it goes on and brings on the laughs. I’d certainly say it’s brutal —the truth can be brutal to take and absorb.”


’God of Carnage’

Through Nov. 12

Peppearmint Creek Theatre Co.

Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St., Lansing

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6

$15 adults; $10 students and seniors.

(517) 372-0945

www.peppermintcreek.org


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