Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage has returned to Los Angeles eleven years after it broke Ahmanson box office records, this time round at the Odyssey Theatre, an intimate setting that better suits Reza’s hilariously edgy comedy of manners (and lack thereof), terrifically performed by a crackerjack ensemble of four.

The Tony-winning Best Play of 2009 examines the carnage even the most sophisticated and socially domesticated among us can wreak when etiquette is forgotten and gloves come off—helped along by copious amounts of rum.

The play’s four civilized savages are Michael and Veronica Novak (Michael Rubenstone and Lisa LoCicero) and Alan and Annette Raleigh (Jack Esformes and Leilani Smith), the latter of whom have come to pay the Novaks a visit, though one would hardly term it a social call.

We quickly learn that the Raleighs’ eleven-year-old son Benjamin has gone and whacked the Novaks’ Henry with a stick, and as far as the latter’s parents are concerned, justice must be done.

Though writer/book shop employee Veronica seems at first to be the most levelheaded and businesslike of the bunch, she’s also the one least likely to accept a signed statement as sufficient recompense for Benjamin’s apparently unprovoked attack on her innocent child.

Mousy wealth manager Annette seems entirely too cowed by her husband and timid among strangers to do anything other than get sick to her stomach, however once a few glasses of rum have been downed, it becomes obvious that still waters run deep.

Corporate lawyer Alan appears unconcerned by his son’s misbehavior and sees any attempt to change him as a waste of time that could be far better spent on the phone conducting lawyer business, place or circumstances be damned.

As for Michael, the domestic hardware dealer takes a boys-will-be-boys attitude to the incident. He did, after all, once lead an elementary school gang of his own so why shouldn’t his son do the same today today.

Laughs and gasps abound, inspired by (among other things) a discarded hamster, some not-quite-ruined coffee table books, a grandmother’s blood pressure medication, a pair of cigars about to be smoked in the home of an asthmatic child … and an onstage brawl or two.

Reza not only keeps us in stiches, she gets us to thinking about male-female, male-male, and female-female relationships, as each of her protagonists finds him-or-herself allied with one or the other of the remaining three, whether attacking a spouse or defending his-or-her gender (or vice versa), all of this under Peter Allas’s incisive direction at the Odyssey.

As outrageous as the stage antics get (and they get pretty outrageous indeed), Allas and his cast never let us forget that these are four complicated, concerned, conflicted parents with marital issues to boot.

The always fabulous Rubenstone gives Michael the kind of good-natured exterior you’d expect from someone in sales, and a shirt and tie to match, but just wait till the tie gets lost along with Michael’s self-control.

As Veronica, the luminous LoCicero is so impeccably made up and put together, it’s a particular treat to see this desperate housewife plastered and out of control.

Esformes’s amusingly scrappy Alan makes it instantly clear that wife and child come in a distant second to the work that consumes him and the phone he’s got attached to his right hand.

Last but not least, the stunning Smith gives us a woman so cowed by her husband that it’s a hoot and a half to see her unravel and let loose.

Not only that, but casting a woman of color as Annette adds nuances to Reza’s script that haven’t been there in the three previous productions I’ve seen with needlessly all-white ensembles.

God Of Carnage looks fabulous too thanks to Tyler Scrivner’s elegant living room set, appointed with Jenine Macdonald’s meticulously chosen properties and subtly, effectively lit by Gavan Wyrick.

Mylette Nora’s four character-appropriate costumes are winners too, with sound designer Jesse Mandapat adding occasional effects along the way.

Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Understudies Eve Danzeisen, Marieh Delfino, Chris Devlin, and Rubenstone take center stage Sunday May 22 at 7:00. (Rubenstone stepped in for Matthew Downs at the performance reviewed here.)

God Of Carnage is produced by Racquel Lehrman, Theatre Planners. Misha Riley, Theatre Planners, is associate produder. Angelica Diaz Estevez is production stage manager. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Clocking in at a lickety-split eighty-or-so minutes, God Of Carnage makes for the most exhilarating of theatrical rollercoaster rides.

Odyssey Theatre, 2055 South Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles.
www.Onstage411.com/Carnage

–Steven Stanley
May 21, 2022
Photos: Viktoria Chernetski, Circumpunct Studio, and Tanya Ruth/Circumpunct Studio

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Odyssey Theatre, Yasmina Reza