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Something to get your teeth into
Mine host Veronique (Sue Hawkins)
with guests Annette (Sarah Colloby) and Alain (Ian Mason)
God of Carnage
Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Swan Theatre, Worcester
****
IMAGINE a sort of happy families crossed
with a grown up version of Lord of the Flies all set in a suburban Paris
sitting room.
It all starts innocently enough. Ferdinand Reille
and Bruno Vallon, 11-year-old friends, have had a disagreement in a
local park which ended with Ferdinand whacking his friend with a stick
breaking two of his teeth.
So that night the Vallons, Alain, a corporate
lawyer so attached to his mobile phone he would probably need it
surgically removed, and his wife Annette, who is in wealth
management, visit the home of the Reilles, Michel, who has his own
household goods wholesale business and his wife Veronique who is writing
a book on Darfur.
They are meeting to discuss the matter and
perhaps arrange a meeting between the two boys, all very civilised . . .
or so it seems.
But as the evening wears on, constantly
interrupted by Alain and his mobile, as he deals with a crisis with a
pharmaceutical company client marketing a dodgy drug, the civilised part
of the discussion goes downhill fast degenerating into absurd arguments
and name calling – more childish than the children they are discussing
and at times very funny.
And as the arguments bounce around so allegiances
change from the two couples combining forces against each other then
switching to the men against the women - we even have moments of
intellectual wife swapping – and to
complete the set, husband against wife as each marriage gets its own
stick in the teeth.
As the night wears on and the 15-year-old rum
flows, out goes political correctness and in comes racial prejudice,
homophobia, sexual prejudice, attacks on each other’s businesses,
attacks on marriage, each others, their own and in general, the murder
(alleged) by Michel of Nibbles, the Reilles’ hamster and, as the
highlight of the evening, Annette throwing up on the arty coffee table
book collection.
Michel (John Lines) decides when all else fails there
is always the bottle
Ian Mason is a convincing Alain, a pedantic
lawyer very careful in the use of words and their legal implications to
the point of ridicule. There is no love lost between him and his son nor
much between him and Annette, played by Sarah Colloby, or anyone else it
seems although he belligerently defends Ferdinand’s legal position out
of habit
Colloby gives us an Annette who is defensive of
her son as a mother and gives an air of feeling rather superior to the
Vallons – they are trades people remember.
Sue Hawkins’ Veronique is supposedly the liberal
of the piece, the peacemaker and the instigator of the meeting,
initially wearing her conscience on her sleeve, preaching tolerance yet,
it turns out, the most violent of the quartet, while Michel, played by
John Lines, is an easy going sort of chap who goes along with what his
wife says . . . initially, and then out come the cutting remarks as
lines are drawn in the sand.
Once the meeting starts it very soon becomes
clear that the four are walking on egg shells. One word out of place,
even if only perceived, and hackles rise and the attack of one boy upon
another is just a minor sideshow. And as the meeting heats up, so does
the language as all thoughts of a civilised, grown-up dialogue vanish in
a whirl of expletives.
The four of them do a wonderful job as we see
their characters change and develop as the night evolves with even the
audience allegiances changing. There was a lot of dialogue to learn and
timing had to be good to make it work, and make it work they did.
There was also clever use of pauses, particularly
early on when the couples first meet. Silences make people uneasy in
their own conversations, especially when talking with strangers, and
when it happens on stage it makes an audience uneasy, taking them out of
their comfort zone and imperceptibly building tension which was all
cleverly done by director Tony Childs.
Yasmina Reza original 2006 French play, here
translated by Christopher Hampton, has been shown around the world and
has been a hit in London and New York, striking a universal chord of
recognition of varying degrees no doubt with parents and couples alike.
It is a funny, human and at times cruel observation of human
relationships and a lovely studio production. To 21-03-15
Roger Clarke
18-03-15
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