Review: GOD OF CARNAGE at Town Players Of Newtown

Keep it simple. Sometimes that is the best way to go. Highlight your strengths, let them shine, and keep everything else simple. That mantra was the focus of the Town Players of Newtown’s production of God of Carnage, written by Yasmina Reza and directed by Terry Sagedy, and it paid off for a fun evening at the theater.

Personal thoughts on the script itself aside, it was clear when you entered the theater that this production was going to highlight the actors- and that was the right choice. Nick Kaye, the set & lighting designer, didn’t distract the audience with a realistic living room wall: the three wall set was painted black with a singular painting on the wall, a single red door and a hallway bathed in red light to keep the atmosphere consistent, four red chairs, a glass coffee table complete with tulips and books, and a glass shelf for drinks. That’s all this production needed and I praise both Sagedy and Kaye for their restraint.

God Of Carnage is a play about two sets of parents trying to hold a civil conversation on an incident of violence between their sons. As the conversation continues, facades break, manners fall, and the “respectable” adults devolve into the childishness that they came together to discuss in the first place. It’s a play about people, and Sagedy brought together an excellent group of people to bring this story to life. Let’s start with the Novaks- Michael and Veronica. This couple’s child was the victim of said violent incident and they wished to cooperate with the Raleigh’s to sort this out amongst themselves. Veronica, played by Liesbet Theil, is introduced as the calm, cool, collected head of integrity. Her frustrating descent from civility to pettiness is the most relatable of the quartet and serves as the realistic grounding of the play. Foiled to her is Michael, played by Matt Donovan. His initial portrayal as the passive, push-over “yes man” quickly devolves into a snide, uncaring, occasionally cruel man whose disdain for his wife (and rodents) is brutal and shocking.

On the other side of the conflict are the Raleighs: Annette and Alan. Annette, played by Annette George, appears at the top to be a well put-together, sophisticated woman but whose short fuse reveals the breaking of a long spell of patience that comes hurling- sometimes literally- out of her mouth at anyone in the vicinity. Lastly, there is Alan, played by Rich Lamkin. Out of all the characters, he is the only one who makes no pretense about who he is or why he is here. His aloofness towards the entire situation is evident because he would quite literally rather be managing a PR nightmare than have this parenting conversation. A chauvinistic and cynical man, Alan would rather not be here, but when everything hits the fan, he has no qualms venting his own stresses and ideals onto the pyre, whether asked for or not.