WAGING WAR IN THE LIVING ROOM
REAL-LIFE COUPLES WILL SWAP ONSTAGE SPOUSES TO RAISE THE TENSION IN BACKYARD RENAISSANCE’S PRODUCTION OF ‘GOD OF CARNAGE’
Anyone who knows Yasmina Reza’s black comedy “God of Carnage,” or the Roman Polanski film “Carnage” adapted from it, remembers that the story begins innocently enough. Two married couples get together to calmly talk over the aftermath of a violent altercation in the park between their respective 11-yearold boys. But before you can say “kids’ stuff,” civility goes right out the window.
As Rob Lutfy, director of Backyard Renaissance Theater Company’s new production of “God of Carnage,” sums it up: “These characters are only there for one reason — to defend their children, and they turn this home into a gladiator ring.
“We’re exploring these primal impulses that are just below the surface of our wellmeaning lives,” said Lutfy, former associate director at Cygnet Theatre. “How do we have self-restraint when inside of us every button is being pushed? There are bigger questions, like are we as domestic as we think we are?”
The Backyard Renaissance ensemble in this “God of Carnage” staging, which is now in previews at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center in East Village, features two real-life married couples: Two of Backyard’s co-founders, Jessica John and Francis Gercke, and Keiko Green and MJ Sieber.
In a deliberate twist in the casting, they are not portraying each other’s spouses in the show.
John and Sieber play the Raleighs, whose son knocked two of the other boy’s teeth out, with Green and Gercke as the Novaks, parents of the boy now minus two choppers.
“I think that because Keiko and MJ are not playing one married couple and Fran and Jessica are not either, there is more tension (in the action),” said Lutfy. “We’re laughing at it but obviously the actors are playing the reality of this. After every rehearsal we hug each other.”
To say that in “God of Carnage” the parents quickly become the real children is an understatement. Verbal salvos fly, as does something else that is best not revealed here for those who haven’t seen the play or film.
Lutfy is savoring directing this play, which won the 2009 Tony Award for best play.
“People always ask me, ‘What are your dream plays to direct?’ ” he said. “For me, it’s about playwrights. And she (Reza) is one of those playwrights on my list.”
He’s also delighted about this cast, having worked with all but John before.
“It makes showing up to work so effortless and pleasurable and filled with laughs and love,” said Lutfy. “This is an actor vehicle, a tight quartet, and a play where my job as a director is for the audience to walk away not thinking of me at all. I take the Hippocratic oath and first do no harm.”
Comedy is not new to Lutfy. At Cygnet he directed two Aaron Posner comedies inspired by Anton Chekhov plays, the memorable “Life Sucks” last year and “Stupid F---ing Bird” in 2016.
“There’s a math to comedy,” he said. “It is instantly recognizable whether you get it or you don’t. The audience will tell you if the math is right. It makes live theater really exciting.”