God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Zach Theatre, November 29 - January 8

Zach Theatre's God of Carnage is a beautiful mess.

That's intentional. The set by Michael Raiford is sleekly contemporary with a bold abstract mural inspired by Cy Twombly spread across the back wall. This living room has a stark leather sofa, a Barcelona chair and large pillows in African-style fabrics, all positioned over a striking red floor so highly polished that the characters can probably see themselves in it. Somebody in this family has got money and and a strong sense of design or perhaps has employed a very decided home decorator.

The Zach Theatre is promoting Yasmina Reza's four-character piece as a boisterous farce about sophisticated adults losing it and behaving very badly. We're in the home of the Novaks, Veronica and Michael, whose middle-school-age son had a nasty confrontation with the son of the Raleighs, Alan and Annette. Responding to name-calling, the Raleigh boy bashed the Novak kid in the mouth with a stick, knocking out two teeth.

Now the adults are meeting to discuss the matter and to decide in civilized fashion just what should be done about it.

Hah. Good luck with that, especially when Yasmina Reza is creating you.

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