Professional athletes can call a time out almost whenever they want, often when the pressure is high and a break is needed to regroup. Traffic lights tell you when to stop and go, regardless of when you need to be there. In general, good news doesn’t wait for a bad day to make you feel better, and we all know bad news is inherently negligent of your mood as well. Life doesn’t take breaks, but an art form that is used to reflect life—theatre—incongruously does.
Intermission: the theatre’s halftime. Some may say it’s mainly for the actors, and others may claim it’s moreso for the audience. For a few, it’s an opportunity to swig that little nip to get you through the second act (the speculation of this being actors versus audience members is left to you). The words are clear in the latest program at the Center Theatre in Long Beach, “This play will be performed without an intermission.” It almost sounds like a threat. No bathroom break. No beverage and pretzels to chat over while you ask your neighbor what just happened. Non-stop theatre.
Life doesn’t take breaks, but somehow a new beginning slipped in there. Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage (translated by Christopher Hampton) is the first play of International City Theatre’s season of “Adults Behaving Badly…Unless They Ain’t.” As ICT’s 27th season this is far from the beginning, but for Carnage’s director, caryn desai, this is the beginning—of sorts. After Shashin Desai stepped aside as Artistic Director last year, the ICT board turned directly to caryn (then Managing Director) as their new leader. This is the first “all-caryn” season, having the final decision in regards to show selection, rights negotiating, and casting. As a stamp to this new chapter, she directs the 2009 Tony Award winner for Best Play.
Reza’s real-time unraveling of two adult couples is an unorthodox style that can be both overwhelming and refreshing. Hampton’s translation places the Center Theatre (home of ICT) in a living room in Cobble Hill Park, Brooklyn where two sets of parents, the Novaks and the Raleighs, will attempt to settle an altercation between their children (albeit without their children)…that resulted in the victim losing two teeth to a blow by a stick swung by the other. Veronica Novak (Leslie Stevens) and Michael Novak (Greg Derelian) open their home to Alan and Annette Raleigh (David Nevell and Alet Taylor), and over the next ninety-or-so minutes, the audience is witness to educated, rational adults handling a fragile matter with poise, mutual respect, and compromise.
Right. And “carnage” is the root word for “carnival.”
Although completely different structurally, Carnage is similar to its Best Play predecessor, August: Osage County, in its real-time exposure of the human condition in ordinary social situations. Past all the knit sweaters and unscuffed pumps, the visceral hauntings of human nature are revealed for your enjoyment. After all, if you wanted to be drowned in a sea of happiness and wonderment, you’d be at Disneyland. Conflict makes for good drama.
Aside from running sans intermission, there are no individual scenes either. The entire play is essentially one long take (Orson Welles is insanely jealous), and Reza’s writing, desai’s direction, and the actors’ performances congeal so well you won’t want it to end. Every play is a collaborative production from start to finish, from the playwright through audience member, and Yasmina Reza’s script is such a marvelous core emanating through the complementary levels of design, direction, and performance.
It’s no wonder why this play won for Best Play in 2009, and if this is how caryn desai is starting her reign as Artistic Director/Producer, then Long Beach has quite a future ahead of it with International City Theatre.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 masks
International City Theatre presents God of Carnage (written by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, and directed by caryn desai). Performances are in the Center Theatre Thursday through Saturday nights at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm through February 19th. Visit the website here or call 562-436-4610 for more information and tickets.
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