Tag Archives: God of Carnage

Review: BrightSide Theatre’s God of Carnage

Leave a reply

So technically this was written a month or so ago, and even though it is probably a moot point to post this, I decided instead to just wrap it up and post it anyway since I enjoyed this production regardless:

Show: GOD OF CARNAGE
By: Yasmina Reza
Translated By: Christopher Hampton 		Location: BrightSide Theatre
Director: Derek Bertelsen

Several days ago I found myself seated and waiting for BrightSide Theatre‘s God of Carnage to begin. Front row… dead center, which for a lot of stage setups would have been perfect, except for this particular set up it wasn’t, not exactly anyway.

But before I go on… the quick and simple:
Acting: Like
Set Design: Like
Staging: Love
Directing: Love
OVERALL: Like

After this particular production there were so many thoughts running through my brain that I truly couldn’t find a way to organize it all. So for the sake of simplicity before going into detail, here are a little bit of what I was thinking when the show ended:
– The men felt more consistent than the women
– Veronica showed a lot more subtlety and layers
– The gag was obvious than I would have liked
– There was a lot of material added that fleshed out the characters, comedy, and story
– It never once felt like this was on stage and I was watching from the audience. It felt like I was there in the living room with the characters and just watching this unfold in front of me.

That last one is probably the most significant of all the pieces. The feeling that you are a part of the conversation without having to utter a word. That feeling of being a part of the conversation, of the chaos between the two families is what sets this production apart from others…
Continue reading →

REVIEW: Theatre-on-the-Hill’s God of Carnage

Leave a reply

As posted in the TribLocal, the following is my review of Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s production of God of Carnage written by Yasmina Reza.

=====

This past weekend, Bolingbrook’s Theatre-on-the-Hill introduced another amazing comedy to the suburbs, and didn’t disappoint. God of Carnage is an ambitious, hilarious and very difficult story about two affluent couples who come together because their sons got into a fight in school that resulted in one of the boys getting two teeth knocked out. What starts out as a very civil and reasonably open minded meeting unravels into an in-depth look at the human psyche and how these people are nowhere near as civil as they appear to be, finally asking the question: “What do we know, really?”

So what do we know, really? Well, the small and stellar cast is comprised of Theatre-on-the-Hill alums Bill Smith and Erika Enigk Grotto, who play the elitist Raleighs, as well as newcomers Leann Hoffrogge and Zachary Johnson-Dunlop as the more working class Novaks. Each performer brought to life a vibrancy to characters that are not only relatable as individuals, but as the show progresses, create the realization among audience members that a situation like this could very well happen (or already had) in their own lives.

Continue reading →