Civility and clafouti... cleanup (ugh), Carnage

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Yo, ho ho and a bottle of rum: Black (right) doesn't bother with a glass, to the horror of Papavs in RMTC's production of God of Carnage. (BRUCE MONK PHOTO)

Theatre review

God of Carnage

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

To April 7

Tickets: $28-$73 at 942-6537 or www.mtc.mb.ca

Four stars out of five

The two well-meaning couples who meet in Yasmina Reza's scathing comedy God of Carnage in a bid to resolve a playground altercation between their 11-year-old sons have the best intentions to set a sterling example for their kids on how to work out a lasting peace.

Anyone who knows a thing about history or human nature knows that's not going to happen. And you can't help but fear for set designer Gillian Gallow's angular, uber-orderly apartment, if for no other reason than the word carnage is in title.

The all-adult summit takes place in the New York City home of Michael and Veronica Novak, whose son lost two teeth when whacked in the mouth with a stick wielded by the child of the mortified Alan and Annette Raleigh. The foursome's polite exercise in diplomacy is an attempt to avoid police or court involvement.

They begin their conversation warily, the Raleighs seated stiffly on the sofa, legs crossed, looking like they wished they are anywhere else. The tightly-wound Veronica, who initiated the get-together, is a liberal do-gooder who wants to force everyone to do the right thing while her agreeable husband sells decorative hardware when he isn't cruelly abandoning the family hamster.

The stylishly-dressed Raleighs are a high-powered couple, he's an attorney and she is in wealth management. Annette is conciliatory while Alan is unmoved except when his cellphone goes off and finds himself involved in trying to keep the lid on a drug company client's crisis. It rings constantly and Alan is a complete boor for making the others listen to his ethically questionable legal advice.

Both couples are aggrieved -- the Novaks because their child has been "disfigured," and the Raleighs for being made to think their parenting skills are somehow wanting. The social graces soon give way to anarchy, a drunken mess of tears, bad blood, puke and wasted rum. It's couple against couple, gender against gender...

None of the parents on the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre stage are particularly endearing; so much of the fun of Carnage is watching rich people behaving badly. Reza shows how easy it is to get masks to fall and uncover the inner caveman in all of us. We shake our heads in recognition of some of the behaviour because we have seen it in others and perhaps ourselves.

All four end up losers in the 80-minute sparring match: Veronica loses her high-minded hopes; Michael loses the laid-back pretence concealing his bigotry; Michael loses all communication to the outside world when he is a victim of cellphone vigilantism; and Annette loses her cookies, or at least the clafouti she is served

There is nothing to choose between four strong performances in a very polished, sharp production overseen by director Miles Potter. John Cassini gets lots of the best lines as smarmy Alan, who sees the whole exercise as pointless, agrees his son is a savage and worships the god of carnage. Oliver Becker's Michael simmers for much of the play until he blows up about his loathing for his wife and her liberal values.

The actresses playing Veronica (Shauna Black) and Annette (Vickie Papavs) take their characters in opposite directions. Black portrays the passive-aggressive Veronica confident and strong at the outset before her enlightened consciousness is destroyed, leaving her to ask meekly, "Are we allowed to drink?" Annette comes on as somewhat mousy, used to giving in to her overbearing husband, but then grows defiant. His behaviour literally makes her sick. Annette vomits violently all over Veronica's precious art books, in a scene that is staged in graphic detail.

One of the disappointments of God Of Carnage is that it grows tiresome after its cynical points have been made again and again. All the yelling and hostility never warms anyone's heart in the audience because it becomes obvious that no one is going to win in the shoutfest. Carnage doesn't so much end, but sputters out sadly.

While the movie version sticks closely to Reza's stage script, director Roman Polanski adds a glimmer of hope, where the two boys are seen playing together during the running of the credits, making the carnage caused by their parents all the more ridiculous.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 17, 2012 G5