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By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune October 12. 2014 12:01AM 'Carnage' is short, smart, darkly funny Yasmina Reza's dark comedy "God of Carnage" plays like the troubled offspring of a mating of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "Lord of the Flies." It's fun and games with two dueling couples, and everybody's civilized veneer is ripped away to reveal the Beast Within. Thanks For the Memories Theatre's rather smart production of the 2009 Tony-winning play, translated and transplanted (from Paris to Brooklyn) by Christopher Hampton and crisply directed by Obed Medina, is running through Oct. 19 at the Oak Street Dance Studio at the end of Oak Street near Bear Creek in Ashland. The two couples meet after their sons have had a schoolyard altercation. Michael and Veronica Novak, whose son’s teeth were whacked out with a stick, invite Alan and Annette Raleigh, whose son did the whacking, to their posh Brooklyn apartment to talk the incident over like the fair-minded, liberal, upper-middle class people they are. Anybody who thinks this is gonna work out well, please raise your hand. Efforts to assign responsibility for the fight and work out the aftermath, including dental bills and the question of an apology, quickly go south, and each of the characters begins to reveal he's not quite the picture he presents to the world. High-minded Veronica Novak (Barbara Rains), with her African art and her foody fiddle faddle (a special clafouti), quickly clashes with cynical, corporate lawyer Alan Raleigh (Christopher Perme) — the first head-butting is a nit-picky tiff over Veronica's use of the term "armed" as in "armed with a stick" — who boorishly keeps taking business-related cellphone calls during the couples' meeting. Alan's somewhat mousy wife, "wealth manager" Annette (Lia Dugal) seems set on reasonable behavior at first, as does Veronica's plain-spoken, wholesaler husband, Michael (Mark Schneider). We know these people. They live in ritzy zip codes (the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn), floss religiously and give the doorman a generous tip at Christmas. As things come to loggerheads, the Raleighs come close to leaving several times, even getting as far as the door, but they can't quite cross the threshold, an existential act that would severely shorten an already short (less than 90 minutes, no intermission) play. Their stuckness is one of the recurring themes and implies something beyond the physical space of the apartment. Another ongoing gag has to do with a hamster, a pet of the Novaks' other child, a girl, that rodent-hating Michael has turned out into the night to fend for itself. If you've ever seen seemingly nice people turn into jerks after drinking too much — and who hasn't? — that's what "God of Carnage" will perhaps remind you of. And that's before the drinking begins. When Michael opens a prized bottle of rum, the downward spiral escalates. Insults and flowers are soon flying, along with f-bombs and bodily fluids. A bout of vomiting (be forewarned) onto the coffee table and Veronica's precious art books, is rendered with a nifty bit of stagecraft and is crudely funny without crossing over into total gross-out territory. As the characters reveal themselves, old wounds are opened and new alliances form, shatter, and re-form. For a while it's boys against the girls. Alan admits to believing in the "god of carnage" that seems to be in charge not only in Darfur, about which Veronica is writing a book, but here in Brooklyn. And each marriage is revealed to be in deep trouble. Medina, who is from Los Angeles, where he was artistic director of Askew Theatre Company, has crammed his actors together in an intimate playing space, reinforcing Reza's overheated, claustrophobic atmosphere. The actors hit their marks, as well as their various targets, as each plunges through a downward arc. Schneider, who is an equity actor with a long resume of TV work, brings particular conviction and clarity to the role of the seemingly affable but actually deeply bitter Michael. "God of Carnage" may bring out your inner voyeur (who doesn't enjoy seeing pomposity pricked?), but you may also wonder: Is this all there is to these monsters? Is there not a truly decent or tender bone in all these bodies? A little gray-area shading would have given us more complex, fully human characters. Forget Albee and Golding: Reza's spiritual guru was Jerry Springer. There were a few wobbles with lines, and the thing hasn't quite attained the whipsmart pace it needs. Still, it's a fun evening — witty, cringe-worthy and brutally funny. Yasmina Reza is a French playwright and novelist, based in Paris, whose works have been translated into 35 languages. "God of Carnage" was made into a 2011 movie directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly. Thanks for the Memories Theatre was founded by Peter Wickliff, who has a long resume in area theaters over the past few years. This production, the group's second, runs through Sunday, Oct. 19. Bill Varble writes about arts and entertainment for the Mail Tribune. He can be reached at [email protected]. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141012/NEWS/141019880 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->