God of Carnage

I was luckily enough to get tickets (not cheap!) to see the fantastic play God of Carnage during my stay in New York and I thought it was incredibly funny, truly an exhausting journey of humour and drama. Starring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davies, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Holden, this witty exploration of parental compromise is perhaps the funniest show I've had the pleasure to catch.



Perfectly paced, the pressure and tension build towards some hilarious climaxes, often at the expense of shortly lived pride and dignity. Gandolfini fluctuates brilliantly between rational and incredibly cut-throat honest. Jeff Daniels comedic timing is perfection and he enjoys some of the best interjections as the play progresses. At the beginning, Gandolfini plays the comedic beats to perfection, often waiting a good 10-15 seconds before replying with a simple one-word-retort. Hope Davies who has been fantastic on Six Degrees recently enjoys a humorous character arch. Her character seems to be the most repressed and when she finally unleashes the fury, the stage is brightened up with all sorts of mess. I hadn't seen much of Marcia Gay Holden before but she was remarkably likable. Her character was very raw, it was one that infected the other characters, she refused to compromise her position which fuels the fun and makes for some fantastic match ups. The chemistry between all four characters is outstanding as they take turns unloading on one another. Gender plays a part as the women take on the men, this is a short lived alliance though as it soon becomes a case of everyone for themselves.

Jeff Daniels monologue about the insignificance of anything we do is something I could relate to and I enjoyed it thoroughly. In the tradition of Peter Boyle's speech about "One guy gets sick, another guy gets well..." it points out how all we're doing is killing time before we ourselves are killed, it doesn't really make a bit of difference. Anna Paquin's speech at the end of my favourite film HurlyBurly is very similar.

Worth every penny, go see it if you're in New York. It's at the Jacobs Theatre.