The Rep's "God of Carnage" Needs More Carnage, Less Clafoutis

Hans Altwies, Amy Thone, Bhama Roget, and Denis Arndt in God of Carnage at the Rep (Photo: Keri Kellerman)

"What you have to understand," my friend told me over drinks after the show, "is that this is a very French play."

I spent much of the next day pondering exactly what that means. Without setting out to, over the course of a month I've now witnessed four performances that could be described as very French in one way or another. First there was the brilliantly entertaining French Project, live at Northwest Film Forum. Next, there was Intiman's new adaptation of Molière's A Doctor in Spite of Himself. Last weekend brought the (debatably) amazing Christian Rizzo to On the Boards, and the opening of Seattle Repertory Theatre's 10/11 season with Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage (through October 24; tickets $15-$59).

If any of these performances were going to storm some metaphorical theatrical Bastille and kickstart a Seattle-French revolution of its own, the one least likely to do it is Carnage, which is also probably the one that most erroneously fancies itself capable.

Based on the two plays of hers that I'm familiar with, I do not count myself among Yasmina Reza's many fans. Her much acclaimed play Art, which garnered the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play, is a pretentious, navel-gazing yawner. God of Carnage, winner of the 2009 Tony for Best Play, is roughly on the same level.

Two married couples, (Bhama Roget and Denis Arndt; real life wife and husband Amy Thone and Hans Altwies), meet in a living room to talk through a physical altercation between their children. Like a hundred other completely forgettable plays set in living rooms, things gradually descend into chaos. There are differences in personality and parenting styles. Battle lines are drawn and redrawn: husband and wife vs. husband and wife; husband and husband vs. wife and wife; three against one, on and on. There is an unnatural amount of discussion about clafoutis. And the hamster--dear God, won't somebody please think of the hamster?!

It's only fair to note that Reza has been the subject of great critical adoration for years, but then again, who really cares about the Tony Awards? Seriously. Do you? Is it really that great a distinction to be deemed the best among what Brendan Kiley of The Stranger quite aptly terms "a boneyard of the imagination"?

Translated from the original French by Christopher Hampton, the Rep's production is peppered with references to things and places that are intended to localize the tepid politics of the play specifically to Seattle but end up seeming more like pandering. By replacing La Tour Eiffel with Le Space Needle, Hampton's translation double-dog-dares us not to see ourselves on stage, depicting a certain effete urban liberalism that is definitely not foreign to the soccer mom/helicopter parent set. If I didn't know better, I might have bought that the adaptation had something specific enough to say to Seattleites to make it worthwhile. Maybe.

The reality, though, is that this is one of the hot plays on the regional theatre circuit right now. If you don't catch it in Seattle this season, you also have opportunities to see it at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, Center Theater Group in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh Public Theater, George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ, or the Village Playhouse in Mount Pleasant, SC. If you wanted to make the trip to Houston you could even see this exact production at the Alley Theatre, which co-produced with the Rep and will have its run in January.

Will the Village Playhouse production substitute out the Space Needle reference for, well, whatever the Mount Pleasant equivalent is? Will that help audiences there better relate to the play? Does it even make a difference?

Not to go on a rant, but this sort of stale groupthink is, in my opinion, the single biggest artistic weakness of the regional theatre system right now. I would be seriously down on American theatre if I believed that this kind of play is the best it has to offer. I don't; it isn't. Of course, all of these points have been thoroughly hashed out time and time again by others far more eloquent than I. Producers will tell you that they're just giving their audiences what the audiences want, and indeed, early word is that the Rep's Carnage is selling quite well.

All that said, this is a very well-executed and reasonably enjoyable production of a play that is neither insightful nor important. It has at least one big surprise to hurl at you. The performances are up to the high standards that Seattle's largest venue for straight plays demands. Altwies and Thone are Seattle treasures and both bring their A-games.

Director Wilson Milam, a Bellevue native now based in London, returns to the Rep and reassembles the same stellar design team from his previous productions of The Seafarer, (also a living room play, of sorts,) and Glengarry Glen Ross. Eugene Lee's sterile white set could have come straight from MoMa and is furnished something like the pages of a CB2 catalog. Seattle designers Geoff Korf (lighting), Matt Starritt (sound), and Deb Trout (costumes) round out an impeccably designed world perhaps better than Reza's interminably obnoxious characters deserve.

Finally, it's worth noting that this play opens the Rep's 10/11 season, the first since Interim Artistic Director Jerry Manning had the "Interim" stripped from his title and became the Rep's permanent artistic head after years of spotty leadership under directors who did not properly understand or appreciate Seattle's rich theatre scene. Manning gets it, and everyone around him knows it. There was cheering and tears of joy on Mercer Street when the decision was announced in May. I have yet to hear from anybody inside or out of the Rep that isn't thrilled.

Even though this particular play wasn't a winner by me, it's good to see one of Seattle's most important cultural institutions in the hands of such capable leadership. That alone makes this production très encourageant.