The Trinity’s Debut Festival continues this week at the Samuel Beckett Theatre with Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage. Directed by Annachiara Vispi, this production is an example of a well-known and hilarious script being executed to beat-perfect success. Nuanced and thought provoking, this comedy is a must-see on campus this week.
God of Carnage is the story of two couples, coming together in awkward circumstances to seek a resolution to a schoolyard assault of one of their respective sons by the other. Their oh-so-cosmopolitan and reasoned discussion of the issue rapidly disintegrates over an hour or so, with their worldly and mannerly approaches giving way to their own playground insults. Home truths and unhappy marriages come to the fore when a civilised veneer is wiped away, revealing the animal and instinctual beneath. This unravelling is witty and compelling, making a sympathetic farce of the four, and asking questions about our own “rock-solid” social sensibilities.
This production gave the impression that it was born from a script that could have floundered under a single poor performance. Whether this was the case or not will be left for another cast to prove, because these four actors blew it out of the park. Each wielded a character with a grand personality, each in their turn overbearing, and yet the performers retained an integral nuance.
Much of the best comedy in this piece came in the form of subtle intonations in the flow of the constant back-and-forth as opposed to the grander moments of theatrics, and both were attended to admirably. Apart from the very occasional lack of projection, the four parts moved in tandem like a well-oiled machine. In other words, the cast and director timed this script to the point where the God of Carnage was near-palpable on stage, moving these figures in a perfectly orchestrated catastrophe. Special mention must be given to Emma Finnegan’s performance as Veronique, whose true embodiment of the character will remain with this reviewer.
Notable too was the part the set and costume design played in the affair. The decor stressed the materiality of the group, and also played with interesting spacial dynamics, really evoking the sense that the living room was a stage for the commencement of battle. The costumes did what perhaps all costumes should, which is to say, they carried definitive yet subtle character traits with them.
One thing that must be noted was the play’s unfortunately glib approach regarding an incident of domestic violence towards a man. This is, however, a criticism of the text and not the production, and the moment in question a bump in an otherwise nuanced and compelling story.
All in all, this director’s debut took a gamble on a play that could have easily been presented in a lacklustre or unwieldy fashion and succeeded in pulling together an elegant and highly amusing character study.
God of Carnage runs from the November 14th to November 16th at the Samuel Beckett Theatre.
