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Putting two couples in a living-room to resolve a conflict involving their children and letting it rip is the basic framework for the acid and hilarious farce “God of Carnage” at the Quogue Community Hall. The last play of the 29th season for the nimble crew of the Hampton Theatre Company, this production is a triumph of dark wit and primal instinct.
You might call it the rumble in Cobble Hill—Brooklyn, that is, where French playwright Yasmina Reza’s play has been recast from Paris to that liberal boiler room populated by folks with all the best intentions. Christopher Hampton’s smooth translation, under the brisk direction of Diana Marbury, hits all the right notes here with a cast that sprightly bounces through the one-act play, which won the Tony for Best Play in 2009, as well as the Laurence Olivier Award in London that same year.
Alan and Annette Raleigh—acted by Andrew Botsford and Rosemary Cline, respectively—are visiting the home of Michael and Veronica Novak—portrayed by Joe Pallister and Jessica Ellwood—to discuss the proper response to the schoolyard violence between their 11-year-old sons. Will the Raleigh boy take the blame for “arming” himself with a stick, knocking out the Novak boy's two teeth? Will he apologize? Will he be punished? Is too much being made of a boyish altercation? Who are these people? And just how civilized are they, really?
Before the answers emerge—really, such questions are never resolved—everyone’s thin veneer of politesse will be punctured. Marriages will expose their fraying edges. Bright red tulips will be flung. The almost-certain death of a pet hamster will be debated. And expensive art books will be nearly destroyed by projectile vomit—yes, you read that right.
The Raleighs are the upper-crust types, or at least they have more money. Alan is someone trying to tamp down an unfortunate leak to the press of a drug’s bad side effect and Annette is a “wealth manager.” The Novaks are pure Brooklyn: earthy Michael Novak is a wholesaler of bathroom fixtures and the high-minded Veronica is a writer, publishing a book on the tragedy of Darfur.
None are so lofty in principle as they would like to believe.
A particularly modern and funny sideshow is observing Alan, seemingly a corporate lawyer for a drug firm, deal with a business crisis. His phone never stops ringing and the dialogue there alone, with the unseen people on the other side of the phone line, is amusing all by itself. Early on, Alan injects nonchalant sarcasm to the proceedings, finally admitting he proudly believes in the “god of carnage” that rules us all.
The tall, thin and elegant Mr. Botsford aptly portrays Alan with panache. He’s all elbows and irony. I was in awe of the numerous soliloquies he has on his cell phone without cues from anyone.
Mr. Pallister brings brio to the earthy Novak. When the not-so-civilized husband of Veronica finally owns up to his true character, he admits that his wife has been trying to pass him off as a liberal and roars, “I can’t keep this bullshit up anymore! I am not a member of polite society. What I am, and always have been, is a f--king Neanderthal.”
But the women really take over this production. You end up believing that if you met Ms. Cline and Ms. Ellwood for lunch, they would be the characters they so accurately inhabit. Today, the kidnapped Nigerian girls would be on the menu with Ms. Ellwood and the foibles of the .001 percent would be the subject of gossipy tête–à–tête with Ms. Cline.
When the play opened in the cool red-and-white living room, and the two couples were exposed, my thoughts immediately went to the unadulterated, drunken savagery of a much darker drama written by Hamptonite Edward Albee, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Fear not. Instead, bring your laugh gene to Quogue for 90 minutes of pure hilarity.
Hampton Theatre Company will close its 29th season with God of Carnage," staging Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 pm., through June 8, at Quogue Community Hall. Tickets are $25, $23 for seniors, except Saturdays, and $10 for students under age 21. Dinner-and-theater packages are also available. For more information, call 653-8955 or visit hamptontheatre.org.
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on May 25, 2014