God of Carnage

Carnage, indeed. Take four people, two couples, and put them together in a stressful situation, and watch the veneer of civility fall away. God of Carnage has played to great reviews in many places, and this production did not disappoint.

Alan and Annette's eleven-year-old son has bloodied the face of Michael and Veronica's son of the same age, and knocked out two of his teeth in a fairly typical childhood altercation. They all meet at Michael and Veronica's house to talk through the dispute. At first, things are cordial and everyone is effusively agreeable. But bumps in the road appear soon enough, and the situation deteriorates into a morass of sniping, shifting alliances, name-calling, and assorted ugliness. Each parent strives to outdo the others in meanness and pettiness. This would not seem to be an appealing story, but this dark comedy never loses sight of the ridiculousness inherent in adults ending up in the same sort of conflict that ended badly for their sons.

I will not indulge in spoilers, save to say that there are two very physical moments on which the play turns. Pay attention - you will want to catch them as they are happening.

All four actors do a wonderful job with their roles. Sally Nystuen-Vahle plays Annette, the initially meek wife of cell phone-wedded lawyer Alan, extermely well. Her character does change over the course of the play, and she manages the transitions with remarkable authenticity, keeping the character at a believable level while exploting the comedy of the deteriorating situation. Chris Hury also does an excellent job as the supercilious Alan, who is condescending to attend this little meeting when he clearly has more important things to do. I've had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Hury in several roles in Shakespeare Dallas productions over the last two years (Posthumous Leonatus in Cymbeline, the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac, and Laertes in Hamlet), as well as in August, Osage County at the Watertower Theater, and he does a consistently good job in his roles. In this one, he succeeds in making a character who is thoroughly unlikeable a pleasure to watch.

Veronica is perhaps the character who most believes in the initial civility. While Annette accepts it because that is how she was taught to behave, Alan pretends to it as long as it is to his advantage, and Michael wants to believe in it but isn't sure he belongs there, Veronica believes fervently in civility and the higher benefits of civilization in general. She is writing a book about Darfur, and one has the sense that she really believes that she can change the world. After seeing Christine Vela in a couple of productions as the Kitchen Dog Theater, most notably a wonderful version of Macbeth last year, I was looking forward to seeing her in this play. I was not disappointed in the slightest; she did a superb job with her character. Completely believable, and you really feel her disappointment as things come apart.

As Michael, Hassan El-Amin succeeds in bringing out the conflicted nature of the character quite well. More of a self-made man, he is a hardware entrepreneur who is a bit intimidated by Alan the high-powered lawyer. In fact, he is somewhat intimidated by all of the other three characters - but he nevertheless holds his own when things get nasty. His role is a hard one, but it is played very well. As we learn more about him, he becomes in some ways more sympathetic and in some ways less. I am impressed by the skill with which El-Amin handles this role.

A couple of notes on specifc things: I have a bottle of English Harbor Antigua Rum on my shelf, and it is very good stuff. Also, mind the hamster.

I would characterize God of Carnage as darky hilarious. It is funny and moving as only the best plays are, and the production does every justice to its source material. As much as any play I've seen, I would call this a must-see production. The Dallas Theater Center production of God of Carnage is playing at the Kalita Humphreys Theater for another two weeks, through June 17th. Don't miss it.