The play “God of Carnage” begins with a civilized discussion between two sets of parents. One of their sons has injured the other in a playground fight, and they are determined to work through the logistics of accountability and apologies like adults. However, the discussion soon falls into complete chaos.
Ian Kedrowski, a senior who directed the play in Studio 200 from, April 17 to 19, said the play points out the hypocrisy of parents like these. “As many of my friends and I are staring down the barrel of adulthood, this play shows that it really is not that different from being a snot-nosed 7-year-old brat,” he said.
“God of Carnage” was originally a French play, written by Yasmina Reza and published in 2008. It was well received by French audiences, so it was later translated into English by noted playwright Christopher Hampton.
After some minor adjustments were made to the script in order to appeal to American audiences, the play arrived on Broadway in 2009. All four actors who performed the play on Broadway were nominated for Tonys. Marcia Gay Harden won the Tony Award for best leading actress.
Kedrowski chose to direct the play at OPRF because he has always loved dark comedies and the way that they “shine a light on peoples innermost thoughts under the guise of comedy,” he said.
The process to become a director for a Studio 200 show is a long path. “There’s an interview process you go through where directors are given the opportunity to direct their very own show,” he said. Before the interview process, these seniors have to have experience in production staff. Kedrowski was able to learn about production processes through his experience in stage management.
The audition process was a welcoming environment for actors of all experience levels. Junior Alex Harks, a less experienced actor, said, “I actually met the director in one of my classes last semester and we became friends.” Later, during the auditioning process, he jokingly suggested that he would audition. A friend convinced him to go for it, and he agreed to give it a try.
At the audition, Harks “ended up having so much fun getting into character and bonding with the other actors” that it made his audition more serious. He won the role of Michael, one of the fathers.
The other actors in the play were juniors Alex Robinson Bellin as Veronica, Grace Williams as Annette, and senior Andy Whalen as Alan (Robinson Bellin and Williams are both Trapeze editors).
Harks and Kedrowski described the rehearsal and production process as fun and full of joy. The process of production itself included two-hour rehersals after school every day for about a month.
Kedrowski noted that, “getting to work with all these insanely talented actors made my job as director easy.”
Harks said, “the production process was an absolute blast!”
Studio 200 was full of laughter during the play and applause after it. The audience seemed to really enjoy it. One audience member, junior Freddy Dunk, said that his favorite part of the show was, “how childish they made adulthood look.”
