Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage (with translation by Christopher Hampton) is a living room drama that happens to be hilarious. Or, it’s a living room comedy which happens to be dramatically sound. The plot is deceptively simple: one boy physically bullies another and both boys’ parents sort it out. From there, the niceties and manners unravel from surface-level genuine to non-existent as the couples argue, agree, vent, and fight, devolving to the very maturity of their 11-year-old boys. Diego J. Sosa’s direction gets the cast to where they need to be for the jokes, social commentary, and antics to land in a breezily paced production that hits all the marks for a successful show.
(Cast of God of Carnage; Photo source: Fresno State University Theatre/The Experimental Theatre Company)
The cast, comprised of Madeline Thaller and Nico J. Diviccaro as the Novaks and Jordan Stewart and Jonathan D. Perez as the Raleighs, is a foursome of talent with committed understanding as to what makes each parent/spouse tick. Thaller embodies the very essence of her character's, Veronica, liberally-minded, always-a-mother vibe so many of us know, either by direct experience or by proxy. Thaller’s mannerisms and demeaning delivery of parental advice is spot-on and serves as a delicious foundational tension for the other three actors play off. Diviccaro plays the slow-burn of polite-to-maniacal effectively, allowing his burst of frustration to serve as a release of humor while driving the scene exceptionally well. Sosa’s blocking isn’t limited to simply sitting and walk-and-talks, as he also makes use of levels, whether on the floor, sofa, chairs, and Diviccaro utilizes the physical blocking well.
(Jordan Stewart (Annette) and Nico J. Diviccaro (Michael), with Jonathan D. Perez (Alan) upstage; Photo source: Fresno State University Theatre/The Experimental Theatre Company)
Stewart’s all-business approach to her character, Annette, in the beginning of the play is delivered with a natural tendency to let the words serve her reactions, and her rum-drunk scene serves her calm-and-poignant monologue to spark an all-encompassing understanding of how these parents truly come across. Perez is a stalwart Alan Raleigh, who allows the frenetic “manliness” of his character to shine every chance he gets. Each character gets a chance to both connect to and go up against the other, and Perez handles these varying dichotomies with nuance and a knack for nailing the hilarity when called for.
(Nico J. Diviccaro (Michael) and Madeline Thaller (Veronica); Photo source: Fresno State University Theatre/The Experimental Theatre Company)
Steven Kairuz’s scenic design is excellent, being a nicely painted living room wall with plenty of decor and furniture to establish the Novaks’s economic status and cultural interests. Natasha Mach and Silas Neves-Moench’s lighting design is properly contextual and has a nice touch with the fireplace serving as a cozy reminder of this home intending to be a place of civility when, in fact, it is not. Chloe Mae Tabor’s contrasting costume design of how the Novaks match and how the Raleighs match is visually pitch-perfect.
God of Carnage has one more performance today at 2pm so head to Fresno State’s Lab School 101 Theatre to see the carnage and enjoy this timely, relatable, and a seriously funny production.
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