God of Carnage
Gielgud
Never So Good
Lyttelton
Into the Hoods
Novello
Nothing terribly original about Yasmina Reza’s new play, God of Carnage, which examines the idea that civilised behaviour is a decorative curtain that masks our true savagery. Two nice smug bourgeois couples, while attempting to patch up a row between their sons, descend into an inferno of violence and rage. But the show, not least on account of the script, is an absolute triumph. The back story is contrived with great artistry so that small plot details reappear with minor changes that give them massive new force. And Reza draws her characters very deftly and sympathetically. But her orchestration of relationships is, if I’m being fussy and I usually am, a bit limited. She works the two couples in predictable directions, slowly pushing each to the limit of explosive antagonism and, after the bust-up, making both partners form an unexpected bond with a member of the other pair.
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