First, it was a beeyootiful day. We love going into L.A. to attend a theatre event. It is always fun to watch tourists and fellow theatre-goers as we picnic near the Peace on Earth fountain. Domestic and international tourists are drawn to the nearby Walt Disney Concert Hall and even though we’ve seen it dozens of times, it is always a wonder to see. It was a warm day and I discovered that if I stand in a certain place in front of the Disney Concert Hall, I could feel significant heat radiating off the stainless steel exterior.
When I first heard the title of the play was “God of Carnage”, I cringed and thought, “Oh great, a play about war or violence”. Instead, this is a sophisticated laugh out loud comedy starring James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis. On the Ahmanson web site, there is a video of the actors being interviewed. So check it out.
Even when I saw the interviews online, I was hoping it would not be a modern day “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” play. Too be honest, I didn’t like the classic even though I am a fan of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was too visceral, raw and hateful.
The play is advertised as “A comedy of manners…without the manners”. In the opening scene, two well-to-do couples are calmly discussing a statement that will be submitted to the courts about a fight between their 11-12 year old sons at a local park. They all agree on the carefully worded statement because of course, they are sophisticated and civilized, avoiding the ugly litigation scene.
But everyone has their foibles and Jeff Daniels pushes his wife to the brink as he interrupts the conversations with his incessant business cell phone calls. People, don’t you just hate that? Suddenly, his wife portrayed by Hope Davis isn’t feeling well. Then shockingly she literally hurls as she splashes the rug, coffee table and the precious art books on it. That scene was simply hilarious as everyone is horrified being splashed with puke and rushes around to clean up. I cracked up when James Gandolfini gently tries to hold her hair out of the puke bucket as he turns red and gags.
As Marcia and James take a hair dryer to the damaged art book, Max and I looked at each other knowingly. Max treasures his art books, one of which is on our coffee table. He said if anyone hurls on his art books, the culprit will be hurled out of the house…well he shudders to even think about it.
That scene is the “civility ice breaker” as each person attacks or is attacked by others. Behind the façade of manners and civility, they all bemoan the human frailties of their partners and the troubles around the world.
Now the tone of this play is so opposite of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe”, so when I say “attack”, it isn’t done in the same manner as the classic. The audience was entertained and the play was funny. The writing is good, but the actors made it even more successful through the nuances of their delivery. Marcia won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her part in this play. James Gandolfini was so funny with his comedic timing and reminds us of Ken, a dear friend of ours because of his expressions. But at the same time, James is the type of person you do not want to piss off as he verbally fights back, aka Tony Soprano style.
What did I get out of it? Well, in my real life, people will continue to be civilized or if someone gets out of hand, I will walk away. That is nowadays, whereas a few years ago, I would be nose to nose with an a**hole. What this play does is bring to light what people would like to say out loud, short of coming to blows.
I would say this would be a play we would see again, but I don’t know if it would have the same affect of being laugh out loud shocked during the hurling scene. But there were so many other funny dialogs and memorable scenes such as Hope dunking her husband’s cell phone in a flower vase or in a fit, throws all the flower lilies across the stage. At the end of the play, we gave them our standing ovation. Yes, yes, yes….we would see it again.
