BY SHARON EBERSON
God of Carnage may not seem like an apt title for a comedy, but that’s the point. I hadn’t recalled the play being quite so laugh-out-loud funny, so I was tickled that the barebones production now playing in Braddock, featuring an A-team quartet of actors, has elevated the hilarity inherent in writer Yasmina Reza’s brilliant premise:
What happens when two sets of New York parents seek a civilized response to an act of playground violence: one of their 11-year-old sons whacking the other with a stick, knocking out two teeth?
In this case, outwardly responsible adults take wildly inappropriate dives into their darkest sides is a blast to witness, particularly when those adults are played by Daina Michelle Griffth, Patrick Jordan, Gayle Pazerski and David Whalen.
How polite would you be as the parents of the victim? How defensive would you be as the parents of the perpetrator? How unhinged can it become when these four individuals have had enough of the situation, of their lives, of each other?
It’s obvious that at some point, for each of the characters, the cork will pop on bottled up emotions, and we should all buckle up for the ride.
Watching Griffith’s pent up and proper Veronica let loose, for example, is a sight to behold. The mother of the victim, Veronica is an art historian, a humanitarian and a writer who is about to have her book on the Darfur genocide published. She has called the gathering together with her husband, Michael (Jordan), hoping to get the boys together, anticipating an apology and ready to hear what kind of punishment awaits the boy who attacked her son.
At first, passive aggressiveness ensues.
Jordan’s Michael starts out as a gracious host. The other couple – Pazerski’s pale, apologetic Annette, and Whalen as willfully annoying Alan – are not as amenable as they seem, even though Alan matter-of-factly describes his son as “a savage.”
What at first seems to be black and white – like all the modern art hanging in Veronica and Michael’s neatly appointed apartment – turns out to be anything but.
What lies beneath the individuals, even the events that took place on the playground, are not quite as advertised.
One of the first to fray is Pazerski’s seemingly pliable wealth management planner, prim in a power suit, but becoming more and more annoyed at her lawyer husband, whose disturbing business calls are causing constant interruptions. In an inhibition-freeing, hilarious moment, she becomes ill – what launch pad, so to speak, into the topsy-turvy turn of events.
The one-sided revelations about Alan’s troubling client add further fuel to the fire of the planned parental peace talks.
Michael, as it turns out, a cynical business owner, has more in common with Alan’s high-powered attorney than you’d expect. Both have retro-macho ideals (Spartacus and John Wayne, dated references, reflective of their attitudes) that Jordan and Whalen sink their respective teeth into, as the “talks” fall apart.
The furniture becomes literal jumping off points for Griffith, as the evening devolves into a chaotic, alcohol-fueled mess of adult misbehavior.
Melissa Martin directs the madness, a tight 75 minutes in a tight space, that is given physical and evocative depth in Tony Ferrieri’s modern design and lighting by Andrew David Ostrowski. A nod to Tolin FX, often called on for blood when it comes to barebones, but still serving up something gross but perfectly apropos.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Barebones productions’ God of Carnage runs November 7-23, 2025, 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, at barebones black box theater, Bingo O’Malley Stage, 1211 Braddock Avenue, Braddock. Tickets: https://www.barebonesproductions.com/godofcarnage
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