Parents show immaturity in ‘God of Carnage’

Patrons can get the chance to see the humor behind parents misbehaving in International City Theatre's production of "God of Carnage."

Written by French playwright Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton, "God of Carnage" received both Broadway's Tony Award for Best Play and London's Olivier Award for Best Comedy. The play was also released as a major motion picture entitled "Carnage," directed by Roman Polanski.

"God of Carnage," directed by caryn desai, is ICT's first play of the 27th season, and fits in perfectly with the "Adults Behaving Badly" theme of the season.

This play brings two different sets of parents together to resolve an altercation, after their 11-year-old sons have a quarrel in the playground. Of course both couples believe issues like these can be settled through civilized communication like grown adults. Unfortunately, they soon realize how simple it is to resemble their children's immature way of communicating once questions of marriage, upbringing, career and ego come about.

The victim's parents are the hosts of the evening and depicted as the more concerned couple. Long Beach resident Greg Derelian plays the blue-collared father, Michael Novak. Although he cares about the well-being of his son, who just lost two teeth, it is easy to notice that his wife Veronica Novak (Leslie Stevens) is the coordinator who dragged her husband into this mess of an evening.

At the start of the play, Veronica is portrayed as a composed, caring citizen of the world who simply wants to do the right thing by inviting the culprit's parents over to discuss a plan of action for their sons. By the end of the play, Stevens does an impressive job at shifting her character to a drunken, emotional woman who joins the chaos of the evening after her precious book collection gets vomit spewed all over it.

Annette Raleigh (Alet Taylor) is the mother of the offender and constantly finds herself trying to gain the attention of her husband, Alan Raleigh (David Nevell), an attorney who pays more attention to his cellphone than his son's problems. This couple is depicted as the upper-class swanky set of parents, who soon break their posh demeanor once their parenting skills are questioned by the Novaks.

The two characters who bump heads the most throughout the play are Veronica, with her so-called peaceful resolutions, and Alan with his careless attitude and rude cellphone interruptions. While the spouses seem to be the perfect balance in their own marriages, Reza writes each individual character to perfectly represent all the different types of people in the real world — the middle-class buffoon who praises his masculinity, the advocate who tries to resolve what's wrong in the world, the corporate jerk who only cares about himself and the bipolar pushover who only lets loose after a few drinks.

Eventually, the night becomes a battle of the sexes once the women find out how to attack the men where it really hurts — questioning Michael's manliness and cutting off Alan's source to the outside world by dropping his cellphone into a vase. The men retaliate by bringing out the rum and cigars, and being insubordinate with their wives.

For a play about manners, without any manners, "God of Carnage" runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m., Jan. 27 through Feb. 19. Tickets are $37 on Thursdays; and $44 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

International City Theatre is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center at 300 E. Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach.

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