[NEohioPAL] Review of CVLT's "God of Carnage"

[Bob Abelman]

The bile is out of balance in CVLT's 'God of Carnage'

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 10/5/12

 

Not since Edward Albee's 1962 drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" have proper adults behaved as abominably as they do in Yasmina Reza's 90-minute comedy of conflict "God of Carnage," currently on stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre.  

 

Alan (David Malinowski) and Annette (Evie Koh) Raleigh's 11-year-old son has hit Michael (Mark DePompei) and Veronica (Dawn Hill) Novak's 11-year-old son with a stick while playing at the park. The grown ups---well-educated and well-to-do New York professionals-have gathered in the Novak's tastefully-appointed living room to discuss logically and with grand civility how best to deal with the boys' bad behavior. 

 

Soon the couples nitpick over words, such as how to define the assault ("armed," after some discussion, is reduced to "furnished") and how to categorize dessert ("So, clafouti?  Is it a cake or a tart?").  They then disagree on what constitutes proper parenting and begin arguing over what their children should do to right the great wrong.  Awkwardness turns to tension and tension slowly escalates to agitation.

 

If Blake Edwards ("Pink Panther," "The Great Race") had written this play, a massive pie fight would ensue.  Reza offers no such release, for her cultured creatures continue to toss verbal barbs and one participant tosses her cookies.  The playwright then adds alcohol to the mix and things turn really ugly.  

 

Intellect and inhibition give way to protective instincts, primal behaviors trump social norms, and soused self-righteousness supersedes everything.  Soon, the couples pair off, then the men align themselves against the women, and everything culminates in a survival of the mis-fittest   free-for-all.   

 

At least that is how the play's hilarity-at-another's-expense is intended to unfold.  It did so in the 2009 Tony Award-winning production on Broadway as well as last April's critically acclaimed production at Dobama Theater in Cleveland Heights.  It does not in this CVLT production.  

 

Forced out of his director's chair and onto the stage as a last-minute cast replacement, an understandably distracted (and genuinely heroic) Malinowski mismanages the play's mayhem. 

 

The problem is that the tension between the Raleighs and the Novaks begins too early in the play and at too high a decibel, opening with an onset of animosity rather than feigned amiability.  As a result, the slow burning agitation that is cleverly woven into bits of precise dialogue ignites prematurely and burns way too hot.  The characters' escalating anxiety and build-up of bile peaks early and reaches a histrionic plateau that leaves the actors with nowhere else to go.  

 

The dark comedy suffers accordingly.

 

Worse, all this accentuates a significant flaw in the play itself.  As the playwright did in "Art" and "Life x 3," the illusion of intellectual depth in "God of Carnage" leaves those craving it a tad dissatisfied when the play dissipates into relative nothingness at the end.  Without the intended mounting tension reaching its crescendo come curtain, the CVLT audience is left with only a talented cast to admire.

 

As high-end attorney Alan, Malinowski is a pleasure to watch as his singular focus on business and total indifference to everything else turns into boyish attentiveness when the smell of battle arises. 

 

Evie Koh, as Alan's well-mannered and highly rational wife, becomes delightfully unbridled once the rum kicks in.  In fact, she is increasingly interesting as her character becomes progressively inebriated.   

 

Although Dawn Hill seems less comfortable letting loose, she is marvelously uptight at the start of the show and wears an air of superiority as if it were precious, heirloom jewelry.  

 

Veteran community player Mark DePompei has mastered the art of quiet indignation, which he gets to display at regular intervals throughout this play.  Despite some dialogue that shows his character's rough edges, DePompei still manages to make Michael accessible and absolutely engaging.

 

Despite its shortcomings, this CVLT production gives life to "God of Carnage."  Just not enough laughs.

 

"God of Carnage" continues through October 20 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, 40 River Street, Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, which are $12 to $16, call 440-247-8955 or visit www.cvlt.org.
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