“A study in the tension between civilized surface and savage instinct, this play is itself a satisfyingly primitive entertainment with an intellectual veneer.”
The Moses Gunn/Norman Marshall Play Company’s core group of actors constitute a professional ensemble with credits ranging from the West End and Broadway to television and film to regional theater. Based in Guilford, the company brings rich, quality play readings to the Connecticut shoreline.
About the Play. “This internationally acclaimed comedy takes you deep into the most dangerous place on Earth: parenthood. What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behavior of their children? A calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime? Boys will be boys, but the adults are worse – much worse. Tony and Olivier Award-winning God of Carnage is a comedy of manners, without the manners.”
About the Playwright. Yasmina Reza is a French playwright and novelist, based in Paris, whose works have all been multi-award-winning, critical and popular international successes.
Her plays, Conversations After a Burial, The Passage of Winter, Art, The Unexpected Man, Life x 3 and A Spanish Play, God of Carnage, How You Talk the Game and Bella Figura have been produced worldwide and translated into thirty-five languages.
In 1995, Art premiered in Paris and went on to win the Molière Award for Best Author. Since then it has been produced world-wide and translated and performed in over 30 languages. The London production received the 1996-97 Laurence Olivier Award and Evening Standard Award and the Tony award in 1998 in New York.
Her new play, God of Carnage, opened on 8 December 2006 at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich, directed by Jürgen Gosch, received the Viennese Nestroy-Theatreprize for the best German-language performance of the season. In Paris on 25 January 2008 at the Théâtre Antoine, Yasmina Reza directed the play with Isabelle Huppert.
In London, God of Carnage, translated by Christopher Hampton opened on 25 March 2008 with Ralph Finnes, Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott. In New York, the play opened in February 2009, directed either by Matthew Markus with Jeff Daniels, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis. For the second time, Yasmina Reza won the Tony award. Her adaptation of the play for Roman Polanski movie “Carnage” won the Cesar of best script.
