God of Carnage

Civility is feigned, anger is suppressed, egos are wounded, issues arise, the rum bottle is opened and the "God of Carnage" is unleashed. Playing through September 2 at the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in Balboa Park is Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage," a play about manners that is void of any such manners itself.

Adapted for the American stage by Christopher Hampton from its original French, the play is set in the living room of Michael (Lucas Caleb Rooney) and Veronica Novak (Ericka Rolfsrud). After finding out that their son had his teeth knocked out with a stick by a neighbor boy, they decide to invite the parents of their son's attacker to their home for a discussion about the incident.

Alan Raleigh (T. Ryder Smith) is the accused's father, a lawyer working for a troubled pharmaceutical company, who is married to his cell phone as well as his wife, Annette (Caitlin Muelder). Annette is anxious to resolve the matter and seek a sense of peace that seems to escape her life when her husband is present. Veronica wants to see that life is equitable and safe for all those involved asking for little more than an apology. Alan has no interest in being anything but a lawyer, not even a father, and Michael is everything but the front he puts up.

After Annette has had all she can handle, everything that has been held inside is released all over the Novak's living room, literally and figuratively. As each of the character's sense of respect and decorum lapses and the rum bottle is emptied, a dizzying merry-go-round ensues as different alliances are forged and then forgotten between the fathers, the mothers, spouses and opposite couples alike. Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred and everyone is scorned in a drunken melee that could only be presided over the God of Carnage himself.

Richard Seer was masterful in his direction of "Carnage" right down to the complex blocking of this show. Casual theater-goers might be wise to find some Dramamine before curtain because dizzying cannot accurately describe the actor's movements in this production but the observant will quickly pick up on the parallels between the actor's physical shift and the character's metaphorical shift. As each takes a particular, and temporary, stand in the current conversation they align themselves accordingly on stage. This helps drive home the ever-changing circumstances and coalitions that develop throughout the one-act.

Robert Morgan's scenic and costume design drew a subtle but noticeable distinction between the Novaks who, like their son, are trying to create the image that they fit into the higher class neighborhood and the Raleighs who feel as though they could buy it.

Rooney's and Smith's performances annoyed me at the start because they just seemed somewhat unnatural. It wasn't until after the wretched climax that I began to understand the complexity of each character and the fact that each had their tongue bitten so tightly it is surprising it wasn't bitten off. Once the gloves came off, or in this case the rum bottle opened, and each man was finally free to be himself did we see the true nature of these men, and their true nature was terrifying and tantalizing.

Muelder was electric as the pacified follower turned prize fighter Annette. Her appeasement gives way as she becomes persona non grata in the Novak home. Her fight back, however, is so welcomed by a weary audience the woman sitting next to me gripped her chair as if to stand up to applaud her only to realize we were only mid-performance and the show had not ended. I waited to see her egg on the excited crowd but she never broke the fourth wall, as much as I wanted her to.

Rolfsrud as Veronica was the highlight of the show. It may be because she reminded me so much of people I know in my own life, it may be because she was the only one who genuinely cared about the welfare of the children (and the only one who kept bringing the conversation back to their well-being), or because she was the one who maintained the most civility as the conversation degraded, but as much as she wanted to wanted to lose all self-control she was the one whose toe hit the line but never really crossed it. In a show where everyone else showed two distinct faces, she had to show one in several different lights. The intricacies of her character and she were delightful to watch.

Delivering a lot of laughs, a few gasps, and one "did that just happen" kind of moment, "God of Carnage" manages to deliver a messy melee that leaves its audience wanting more but having had enough.