It’s the simplest ideas that end up seeming the most brilliantly allegorical. Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage is a particularly brilliant bit of allegorical comedy. Here we have two calm, rational pairs of parents meeting for a discussion about how one child had hurt the other in a public park. Naturally, parents being parents, things end up deterioirating over the course of the meeting. And because it’s stage comedy, we can laugh at the difficulties of civilized people trying to deal with the less rational end of human nature . . . and in the process fall victim to it. Adults become very childish whether it’s a group of parents or a group of world leaders. That irrational aggression . . . it’s the third rail . . .
The original French production has been translated to critical and commercial success in the US and the UK. The comedy has played well on west coast and east coast of the continent. This month, it makes its debut on the west coast of the lower peninsula as the Peninsula Players present its Wisconsin premiere.
Joe Foust, Maggie Carney, Karen Janes Woditsch and Kevin McKillip star in a production helmed by Peninsula Players artistic director Greg Vinkler.
Peninsula Players’ production of God of Carnage runs September 7th – October 16th. For ticket reservations, call 920-868-3287 or visit the Players online.
