theater
BY ANNA GRACE
Playing Nasty
Parenthood turns ugly in the Lord Leebrick Production of God of Carnage
W
here do your loyalties lie? With
your spouse? Your sex? Your
child?
When an 11-year-old boy gets a few
teeth smashed out by a stick-wielding
playmate, the appropriate thing for his
conscientious parents to do is to invite the
offender’s parents over for a conversation,
maybe some clafouti and a drafted
statement of the incident. In this comedy-
of-no-manners, the polite conference
quickly devolves into a rum-soaked battle
of ego where well-heeled family folk are
exposed for the fl esh-eating Neanderthals
they really are.
Veronica (Laura Robinson) loves a
victim and is nearly salivating with pleasure
as she describes her son’s lost teeth and
partially exposed nerve. She doesn’t want
compensation; all she wants is a complete
and clear acknowledgement of herself
as a superior parent, intellect and human
being. Finally pushed to his tipping point,
her neat and attentive husband (Russell
Dyball) unleashes his inner caveman right
in the middle of his tastefully decorated
living room.
Shannon Coltrane’s Annette is
somewhat more sympathetic, as she’s just
a rich, skinny, pretentious lady involved in
“wealth management.” It’s her corporate-
lawyer husband Alan (Chris McVay) we
hate the most as he relentlessly answers his
cell phone, interrupting the proceedings
as he attempts to get his pharmaceutical
clients out of hot water for pushing
0 WKHDWUH
dangerous medications.
In God of Carnage, playwright Yasmina
Reza makes it clear that playground
altercations aren’t limited to childhood,
and Lord of the Flies can apply to all of us.
It won a 2009 Tony award for Best Play.
Director Fred Gorelick stages a darker
production of Carnage, with less slapstick
and more guttural sighing than one
might expect. The missed opportunities
for humor would have gone a long
way towards courting audience buy-in.
Carnage is a short 80 minutes, but even
that felt tedious as the characters unfolded
one bad behavior after another.
On the other hand, when it becomes
apparent 20 minutes into the play that
neither couple really cares about their
kid, it’s pretty damn hard to laugh at
anything. The script didn’t tap into the
primal parenting instincts that turns us
into she-wolves, but was more concerned
with the lengths we will go to in protecting
our image. While I am sure our town has
its share of pretentious parents, these
characters are so over-the-top it is unlikely
they’ll strike a chord of self-recognition.
It’s a treat, though, to get to see a
staging of Reza’s play. The provocative
French playwright has been at the center
of controversy since her love-it-or-hate-
it runaway success Art. She is lauded for
weaving deep, philosophical themes into
plays for the masses, while simultaneously
accused of being a “boulevard entertainer
in highbrow drag.” Lord Leebrick Theatre
gives you the opportunity to check out God
of Carnage and decide for yourself. ew
God of Carnage runs Sept.14-Oct. 6 at Lord Leebrick
Theatre; $18-$24; $12, 25 and under.
& '21$/'
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EUGENE WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 29