BY: BRUNO GRUBESIC
Staff Writer
This past month, Meramec’s theater department put on a production of Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage.”
The script follows two families thrown into a conflict after Michael and Veronica’s son gets into a fight with Allen and Annette’s son, resulting in Michael and Veronica’s son tooth being knocked out of his mouth. As the two couples decide how to manage the situation and teach their children right from wrong, every sense of polarity becomes twisted, and black and white become gray.
Allen is revealed to be a heavily uninvolved parent, showing himself to be the pinnacle of toxic masculinity. It’s clear throughout the play that he barely even agreed to go to the meeting, until his wife forced him to. He is a lawyer who spends the entire time talking to his coworkers on his cell phone and managing a case, as he is supposed to be figuring out how to explain his son’s transgressions to him, or at the very least have a basic grasp of what happened between the two. Instead, the pressure to raise their kid falls on his wife, Annette.
While Annette certainly does a much better job of being civilized, at the end of the day it’s clear she doesn’t care much either. She simply views the other family as below them.
Michael and Veronica try their hardest to raise their kids correctly. Veronica does a much better job than Michael, who at the beginning of the play admits to letting his daughter’s hamster die on the street because he simply didn’t want to deal with it anymore and threw it out. Veronica takes the time to take her kids to museums and have them experience the world, even to
Michael’s disfavor as it means he needs to pretend to care as well.
STLCC students Jake Santhuff, Daphne Kelley, Tyler Gotsis, and Veronica McKelvie do an incredible job getting into character and performing the play as Allen, Annette, Michael, and Veronica respectively. Every student looked comfortable on the stage and with their respective stage spouses.
The set and lighting stay stagnant throughout the show. It’s an interesting way of showing the static of the chaos that ensues on the stage, from the staged fight between Veronica and Allen, through all the caffeine, sugar, and alcohol the parents consume throughout their time arguing with each other about how to keep their kids from thinking violence is a solution to their issues.
Overall, the cast does a great job blending the lines between humor and utter despair. The script talks a lot about gender roles and abuse, handling very heavy material. The cast at no point looked too uncomfortable with their lines nor mannerisms, which lets the audience stay at ease throughout the show without having to worry about how the cast will handle their difficult deliveries.
Overall, this production succeeded in entertaining everyone who came to watch it, while shedding light on different kinds of dysfunctional family dynamics.
