PLAY

God of Carnage begins with two couples meeting to discuss an incident that has occurred between their eleven-yearold sons. Alan and Annette’s son, Benjamin, hit Veronica and Michael’s son, Henry, in the face with a stick after a disagreement; as a result, Henry has missing teeth and visible injuries. The parents are meeting to talk about the incident and supposedly mend fences.

The two couples start off cordial, but quickly become contentious as their differing priorities, personalities, and values come to light. The play confronts not only issues of parenting, but also sexism, racism, homophobia, work/life balance, and what are the limits of civility and pretense in modern society.

God of Carnage was first written in French by playwright Yasmina Reza and had a German-language premiere in Zurich in 2006, then was translated by Christopher Hampton, with an English-language premiere in London in 2008. The London production won an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The play then premiered on Broadway in March of 2009. God of Carnage won multiple awards including the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play and a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Marcia Gay Harden as Veronica. The play was also made into a film entitled Carnage which was released in 2011 and starred Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly.

God of Carnage was inspired by a real-life experience of Reza’s: “There was a little incident in the life of my son. He was then about thirteen or fourteen and his friend was in a fight with another friend; they exchanged blows and my son’s friend had his tooth broken. A few days later, I met with the mother of this boy in the street. I asked her how her son was, if he was better, because I knew they’d had to do something to the tooth—they’d had to operate or something. And she said, ‘Can you imagine? The parents (of the other boy in the fight) didn’t even call me.’”

Veronica Novak

Veronica is a writer who specializes in African history and anthropology, as well as working in an art history bookstore. She sees herself as highly cultured and progressive, qualities that are challenged throughout the evening of the play.