Theater by Market Research: the Huntington Theater's "God of Carnage"

God of Carnage, a play by Yasmina Reza, directed by Daniel Goldstein, at the Huntington Theater, Boston, January 21, 2012.

I had read good things about Yasmina Reza, and about this play. She is a serious playwright, and she's found success. A review by Ben Brantley, in the New York Times, from 2009, described the play as an interesting and subtle exploration of human motivations.

Two upper middle class married couples meet in a pricey-looking Manhattan apartment to analyze and negotiate the aftermath of a schoolyard fight between their sons. One boy knocked a couple of teeth out of the other. After apparently reaching a sort of contractual agreement, the parents begin stabbing at each other. Each parent takes a turn in ranting and exploding, for reasons that aren't clear. One couple rages against the other, then the men team up against the women, and vice versa.

The play seemed formulaic and tired to me -- put a group of people together, keep them together -- they can't escape -- and watch the meltdowns, the revelations of Real Human Nature. The initial premise is all right, but after half an hour, the tiresome gags and static comedy wore me down. I kept wondering why the visiting couple didn't simply leave. To write characters who choose to inexplicably suffer and torment each other is  Reza's prerogative. But there's little insight or entertainment gained from watching this.  

An exception to the stiff comedy was Brooks Ashmanskas, who plays Alan Raleigh, a conniving attorney for a large drug company. He expressed an easy, comic naturalness that made me like him in spite of what he was supposed to be.

A friend who attended the production with us suggested that the play owed a lot to television sitcoms, and I immediately thought that was right. The unprovoked attacks, sarcasm, slapstick, all looked to be taken from any Two and a Half Men or some other show. And there were laughs from the audience -- though to me it sounded like a nervous type of laughter, of people laughing because a sign just told them to laugh.

And like sitcoms, the play's formula seemed derived from some marketing research panel -- press the right emotional buttons, and you get 40% to laugh.