Merely Players Presents offers a dark comedy of parents behaving badly

God of Carnage, Yasmina Reza’s Tony award-winning play (translated by Christopher Hampton), runs January 22 through January 31 at On Stage Atlanta.

Following a playground altercation between two 11-year-old boys in Brooklyn’s upscale Cobble Hill neighborhood, the boys’ parents agree to meet to discuss the situation civilly – “practice the art of co-existence” rather than “slaughter each other with insurance claims.” However, the veneer of polite society soon falls away as the two couples regress to childish accusations, bullying and bickering themselves.

The New York Times raved about the 2009 Broadway premiere stating, “Reza’s streamlined anatomy of the human animal incites the kind of laughter that comes from the gut, as involuntary as hiccups or belching.” Originally starring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, the production was such a hit that the limited engagement was extended seven months before converting to an open ended run, becoming the third longest running play of the 2000s. Nominated for six 2009 Tony Awards, the production won: Best Play (Reza’s second win); Gay Harden for Best Leading Actress in a Play; and Matthew Warchus for Best Director of a Play. The international popularity of the play led to a film adaptation called Carnage, which premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival before being released in the United States in September 2011. Written by Reza with director Roman Polanski, the film starred Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz.

Director, Joan McElroy, was drawn to the play because of its surgical view of human nature. “I read where Reza explains the she writes like an artist draws – she writes what she sees. I thought that was fascinating since it says a lot about how we so often interact with each other on a superficial level. Reza shows us what happens when the veneer is stripped to reveal our true nature.”

Tickets are now on sale at $15 in advance and $18 at the door. To purchase tickets for On Stage, log on to www.onstageatlanta.com, or call the box office at 404-897-1802, or email tickets@onstageatlanta.com . On Stage Atlanta is located at 2968 East Ponce de Leon Avenue, Decatur GA 30030.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jerry Jobe Photography

PHOTO CAPTION: What starts as an adult conversation about playground bullying, crumbles into adults behaving badly in God of Carnage. Left to right: Jacquelyn Wyer Neubauer as “Annette”; Googie Uterhardt as “Alan”; Barbara Cole Uterhardt as “Veronica”; James Beck as “Michael”