"God of Carnage," the new play on Broadway by Yasmina Reza, featuring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, like Reza's previous long-running hit, "Art," seen years ago, takes a seemingly simple conflict and spirals it out into illuminating dark comedy. In "Art," it was three middle-aged friends' debate over an abstract painting one bought, and in "Carnage," it's two sets of parents trying to resolve an incident where one's son knocked out the others' son's teeth.
Reza uses the premise to unwind the inevitable differences between couples, no matter how good they might seem together. The cast puts so much physical energy into their performances that you feel not just the words, but their impact. Gandolfini and Gay Harden draw a little bit on previous characters -- maybe this production is a bit tailored to them -- Gandolfini the obvious one and Gay Harden, very similar to the harpy she played in "The Mist" -- perhaps by design.
The show's dark comedy comes from the way the husbands and wives alternate both going at each other and the other couple, and at times siding with their own mate in the arguments and at other times, the others' spouse. Reza's lines, coupled with the actors' commitment, makes it all come alive and brings out that wry humor all at once.
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