Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage shows us four characters who, over the course of ninety minutes, give themselves permission to be the worst versions of themselves. For the audience, there can be a kind of catharsis; for the actors, even more so.
“Watching characters be their worst selves is a great opportunity to see what part of ourselves resonate with that same nastiness. If we don’t like that part of ourselves, we have the power to change it.” That’s David Morgan, who plays Michael. In some ways Michael seems like the most sympathetic of the four: making jokes to defuse tension, going along to get along. But it’s also Michael who delivers what might be the thesis statement of the play: “Because I choose to show myself in a horrible light.”
Why the descent? According to David: “He feels trapped. He’s reached his middle age and sees his connections and relationships as chains. Michael needs to demonstrate that he still has ownership over his life.”
Perhaps even more dramatic is Annette’s transformation. Played by Joy Ng, Annette starts off as the quietest and most buttoned-up of the four; by the end of the play, she’s perhaps taken the prize for saying the most unhinged things. As Joy explains, “She tries to control her impulses and maintain an image that others would look favourably upon. I can empathize with that because in life, we often show the world only the best parts of ourselves as we try to be the person society expects us to be, which can take its toll. It has been a lot of fun exploring what could happen when someone who works hard to be so put together is pushed just a little too far.”
Annette’s husband is Alan, played by Greg Allen; Alan keeps his composure for the longest, in part because he’s not really there. “He is supposed to be discussing the actions of his son that resulted in injury to another child, but he seems far more interested in what is going on somewhere else,” explains Greg. “He is very good at what he does, but he isn’t the kind of lawyer that is looking out for the little guy.”
And then there’s Veronica, Michael’s wife and the ultimate instigator of the meeting. She’s portrayed by Stephanie Kraus, who describes her as “an absolute delight to dive into: deliciously flawed, convoluted in her conviction, and so unbelievably real. She desperately wants to tune to the rules of ‘society’ and the roles she expects us all to play within that framework.”
God of Carnage plays through this Sunday, December 7. Tickets are still available for all remaining performances; get yours today!
Photography: Angela Clayfield
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