In Yasmina Reza's mordant comedy, God of Carnage, the Novaks and the Raleighs—strangers—meet in the Novak's upscale Cobble Hill (Brooklyn) living room to “discuss” a playground altercation between their two sons which ended in Henry Novak's incurring two broken incisors and suffering attendant nerve damage. By the end of the 75-minute performance at George Street Playhouse, it's hard to tell who is more savage, the kids or the grown-ups! On a stage littered with detritus, the God of Carnage strikes again! (Above: Betsy Aidem [Veronica] offers James Ludwig [Alan Raleigh] a second helping of clafouti as Ann Harada [Annette Raleigh] and Christopher Curry [Michael Novak] look on.)
Director David Saint has assembled a superb quartet of actors for the George Street Theatre's final production of the season, which has us mesmerized as their characters' lives and marriages spiral out of control. Allegiances shift so swiftly—wives turn on husbands, men band together as do women, and husbands support the wives of their adversaries (and vice versa)—that your head will spin, deliciously!
We know that trouble lurks when Veronica Novak reads a "statement" alleging that Benjamin Raleigh, "armed with a stick, disfigured his playmate," to which Annette Raleigh takes umbrage. Things become stickier when Annette reports that Benjamin hit Henry because the latter would not let him join his gang and called Benjamin "a snitch." Them's fighting words for these two sets of parents!
Add to this the incessant buzzing of Alan Raleigh's cell phone and his subsequent loud conversations as he defends a drug with dangerous side effects and Michael Novak's admission that he released his daughter's hamster onto the street where it undoubtedly was killed, and you have a recipe for relationship disaster. Even worse, secrets revealed strip away the thin veneer of civility and add to the merriment of the situation.
As writer/activist Veronica Novak, Betsy Aidem is all moral rectitude until her favorite art book is damaged by Annette's projectile vomiting. After that, she argues with her husband and gets drunk on rum, hilariously shedding her upright demeanor and rolling around, literally, on the floor, a wreck. She's matched by Ann Harada as wealth manager Annette Raleigh, who has come from work, complete with an attaché case and sensible black dress. Pronouncing motherhood "deadly," Harada vomits with abandon, berates her husband for his cell phone addiction, calls Michael Novak a murderer and destroys the calm of that well-appointed living room in the wink of an eye! (Above: Aidem and Harada rejoice as Ludwig fishes his cell phone from a vase.)
The men match Aidem and Harada word for word, insult for insult. Christopher Curry's Michael Novak may not resemble the Neanderthal he announces he is (James Gandolfini—aka Tony Soprano—fit the bill perhaps better), but we get the feeling that he's tried to fit into his wife's idea of an upright, moral existence but is hanging on by his fingernails. After all, he's the guy who hates rodents and didn't blink about releasing his daughter's 
pet into the wilds of Brooklyn! And as Alan Raleigh, James Ludwig is the quintessential "suit," a lawyer intent on getting his client off the hook even if it means fudging the truth. Of course, what he does is as bad as Michael's murder of the hamster, only he's playing with human lives! Buttoned-up but with a looniness lurking below, his reaction when his wife destroys his cell phone: precious! (Left)
James Youmans has designed a hard-edged, sophisticated set upon which this epic battle plays out, complete with white leather furniture, a blood red rug and giant black construction on the back wall. Michael McDonald's costumes telegraph their wearer's characters perfectly: Veronica in an long dress and artsy wrap sweater and Michael in a casual shirt and pants contrast with the Raleighs' business-appropriate black attire.
God of Carnage won three Tony Awards in 2009; this splendid production at the George Street Playhouse can only add to the play's reputation of a well-made and very funny play. As supposedly—and by their own account—civilized people degenerate into childish savages, we experience pleasure at watching such people behave badly, saying things they'd never think of saying under "normal" circumstances. It's so cathartic!
God of Carnage will be performed at the George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, through June 5. For tickets and performance times, call the box office at 732.246.7717 or visit the GSP website, www.GSPonline.org.
Photos by T. Charles Erickson.
