Nick Santa Maria, Kim Ostrenko,Kim Cozort and Michael Serratore in God of Carnage.
By Hap Erstein
Like her earlier Tony Award-winning comedy Art, playwright Yasmina Reza again explores adults behaving childishly in God of Carnage, which took Broadway by storm in 2009 and looks likely to meet a similarly appreciative audience at Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre. After all, there is a universal joy in watching others try to maintain civility and failing miserably.
As with her earlier trio of pals whose friendship dissolves before our eyes over an expensive, yet minimalist painting, the French-born Iranian writer again mines a situation that we can simultaneously identify with and feel superior to.
Two married couples, upscale residents of Brooklyn’s gentrified Cobble Hill neighborhood, meet for coffee and a precious pastry known as clafoutis to discuss – calmly and rationally – a playground scuffle between their 11-year-old sons, in order to reach an appropriate punishment and perhaps to gain an apology. Fat chance.
The veneer of civility is only fleeting, giving way to a profane, high-energy, physical comedy production choreographed as much as it is directed by Kenneth Kay.
Over the course of 85 intermission-less minutes, scenic designer Tim Bennett’s well-appointed living room space – which resembles an adult sandbox – is reduced to shambles, and how it gets there is much of the fun.
The characters change positions at regular intervals as they form and dissolve alliances with each other, but initially the hosts, Veronica (Kim Cozort) and Michael (Michael Serratore) Novak, a writer devoted to art and to humanitarian causes and her volatile husband, a purveyor of wholesale household goods, are on opposite sides of the stage, sizing up their prey seated on the couch. They are Annette (Kim Ostrenko) and Alan (Nick Santa Maria), a passive wealth manager and a combative lawyer attached to his cell phone. He is barely engaged in the parenting chore before him, far more involved in damage control for his culpable pharmaceutical client.
At first, Annette is embarrassed by her spouse’s lack of interest in their son’s altercation, which turns into a physical illness brought on by the stress of the situation. Or maybe from the clafoutis. In any event, Reza has written in a humdinger of a projectile vomiting scene, and the Caldwell tech staff executes it with very credible, though messy skill.
God of Carnage is not the most profound play you are likely to encounter this season, but it is entertaining and Reza knows how to impart some insights on the human condition while concentrating on earning laughs.
GOD OF CARNAGE, Caldwell Theatre Co., 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Through Sunday, May 15. Tickets: $27-$50. Call: (561) 241-7432.