★★✰✰✰
Yasmina Reza is well-known for her tragicomic dramas, where a single event prompts a complete collapse of the relationships on stage and characters’ beliefs of what is true. Nicholai La Barrie is the most recent to take on her 2008 play God of Carnage, with mixed results.
God Of Carnage is, ostensibly, a discussion between two sets of parents on how a fight between their children should be resolved. Bruno, as his mother Veronica (Freema Agyeman) is sure to remind us of several times, has lost two teeth—the incisors, to be exact. One of them now has a partially (though not fully, his father Michael (Martin Hutson) adds) exposed nerve, but the doctors are hesitant to give a definitive prognosis, and exactly what will be done to restore the teeth is uncertain. We hear a lot about the damage. He has had to be given two extra strength Nurofen.
The cause of this disfigurement was a hit in the face with a stick wielded by Ferdinand, son of Alain (Ariyon Bakare) and Annette (Dinita Gohil). The incident (a label that carefully ascribes no blame to either party) occurred in a park that the parents have all thought of as safe, as respectable.
As the four make attempts to reach a satisfactory conclusion on how to proceed, facades of good manners crumble, true selves are revealed and conversation veers between any number of broader social issues. Misogyny, racism, classism, parenting styles, the nature of violence—what is unsaid or lightly veiled by a veneer of politesse at the start of the play is brought into the light by its close. Party lines are crossed and loyalties waver and shift as individuals discover just how similar—and different—their viewpoints are.
There was a somewhat shaky start to the performance, with what should be a recognisable awkwardness that comes with socially obligatory smalltalk coming across as unnatural and over rehearsed. The play began to feel more lived-in and less stilted as it went on, but there’s a certain lack of heat in the production that prevents it from really bringing Reza’s (and translator Christopher Hampton’s) words to life. Pithy remarks fall somewhat flat, and it sometimes feels like there’s a lag between characters’ responses to one another; as if they are being read out in turn rather than performed.
Vulgarity is amped up as the situation degrades, in tandem with the violence the characters are so vocal in their opposition of. Just as underhanded insults become harsher, objects of middle-class civility become objects of violence; a hairdryer is held like a gun, a cake slice brandished as a knife. The play’s pacing is carefully constructed, with fault lines in personas and relationships hinted at early on before they begin to really crack up.
The set and staging choices of the performance are really what stand out in this production. Designed by Lily Arnold, events unfold on a circular platform that revolves at an almost imperceptibly slow pace. With the action taking place solely in a living room, characters’ backs are occasionally to the audience. This is an effective choice, emphasising the insularity of their lives and the cyclical nature of their discussions. Richard Howell’s lighting design is also a highlight, with a light bar surrounding the platform and slowly descending over the 90-minute runtime reinforcing that sense of entrapment.
By the end of the story, no conclusion has been reached. Nothing has been resolved. At best, the characters have gone in a circle; at worst, and perhaps more accurately, they have gone down a slowly descending spiral—one that they won’t be able to climb their way out of. What has been said cannot be unsaid.
Although the production has its faults, the quality of the source material keeps it afloat. Perhaps as the actors settle into their roles and become more comfortable with their interactions with one another, more of the play’s spark will be able to show through.
God of Carnage will be performed at the Lyric Hammersmith until 30 September.
Words by Lucy Carter
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