The God of Carnage: A Play (Ff Plays) [Paperback]

Yasmina Reza (Author), Christopher Hampton (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009 | Series: Ff Plays

What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behavior of their children? A calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums, and tears before bedtime?
     Christopher Hampton’s translation of Yasmina Reza’s sharp-edged new play The God of Carnage premiered at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in March 2008 and at Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, New York City, in March 2009. The International Herald Tribune calls it “an expert piece of stagecraft, and savagely funny.”

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reza holds the mirror up to bourgeois hypocrisy withthe savage indignation of a born satirist", Guardian. "A triumph! Brilliantly translated by Christopher Hampton", Daily Express.

About the Author

Yasmina Reza is a French playwright and novelist whose works have all been multi-award-winning, critical, and popular international successes. Her plays Conversations After a Burial, The Passage of Winter, ‘Art’, The Unexpected Man, Life x 3, and A Spanish Play have been produced worldwide and translated into thirty-five languages. L’aube le soir ou la nuit (Dawn Dusk or Night), her memoir about a year with Nicolas Sarkozy, was an enormous success in France and was released in the United States last year.

Christopher Hampton’s work for the theater and cinema includes The Philanthropist, Savages, Tales from Hollywood, translations from Ibsen, Moliere, and Chekhov, and the screenplays Dangerous Liaisons, The Quiet American, and Atonement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571242588
• ISBN-13: 978-0571242580
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Play, May 26, 2009

By 

John F. Rooney - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The God of Carnage: A Play (Ff Plays) (Paperback)

As I write this (May 26, 2009), "The God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza is a huge hit on Broadway and has numerous Tony nominations. As in "Life X 3" the dramatist has assembled four people in a room, two couples Veronique and Michel Vallon paired against Alain and Annette Reille. The Reille son Ferdinand has struck eleven-year-old Bruno Vallon with a stick and knocked out two of the boy's teeth.

Two couples arguing over a children's playground fight? No, that would be too easy for Reza. It's a contest that drags in the state of the two marriages, the attributes and characters of all four adults. It becomes a war of wills, probing the fabric of their lives and lies.

It's fun to watch these four people destroying themselves and each other as battle lines are drawn and redrawn. The insults they throw at each other are priceless. Loyalty to one's spouse becomes a disposable commodity. Spouses turn on spouses; new alliances are formed and dissolved. Vomit plays a role in the farce so be prepared. There are some very funny lines. Michel says, "Puking seems to have perked you up."

Both men show off their macho credentials by boasting about being gang members when they were kids. Bruno is accused of being a grass (informer). Michel becomes a "murderer" because he has gotten rid of the family's pet hamster, Nibbles, on the street. All of them are self-indulgent yuppies who easily get off the subject of the kids and into their yuppyish issues. Alain, a lawyer, is constantly talking on his cell phone until someone puts it out of commission.

It's a very clever, focused play, full of laughs. The play owes something to Absurdist traditions. The dialogue at times is inane and absurdist, ridiculous. The way the trouble intensifies is like the proliferation of chairs in Ionesco's famous play. The verbal slaughter that takes place on the stage makes clear the title. Deep meaning and insights? No, but, yes to stripping bare the pretensions and inner feelings of four self-absorbed spoiled adult brats who are probably raising monsters like themselves.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars god of carnage, July 8, 2009

By 

Barbara Moglia "barbara" (N.J.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The God of Carnage: A Play (Ff Plays) (Paperback)

I saw the stage play "God of Carnage"and throughly enjoyed it. The dialogue between the four characters was so interesting I had to read the written play, The interchange of ideas by their open discussion was wonderful. Reading the script brought more meaning to the play.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The god of the smaller things, February 9, 2011

By 

Alysson Oliveira "Alysson Oliveira" (Sao Paulo-- Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God of Carnage - Acting Edition (Paperback)

"[Are] we interested in anything but ourselves? Of course we'd all like to believe in the possibility of improvement", says poor Alain, one of the four characters in Yasmina Reza's play "The god of carnage". He may be naïve for a single moment saying this, but deep down he - and probably the French dramatist - do not believe in the possibility of improving the human being.

Alain, his wife Annette, and the couple Véronique and Michel, are clear example of the well meant bourgeoisies whose blindness do not allow to see beyond their belly tummy. The answer to Alain first question is: not. No, they - and for extension we - are not interested in anything but themselves. The excuse for the gathering is each couple's child behavior - one of them has hurt the other with a stick. This is said in the first lines of the play, but what arises after a couple of minutes is the inherent nastiness that inhabits the inside of each of us.

Reza's strong dialogues - translated with pitch perfection by Christopher Hampton - exposes above all her characters' moral fragilities. They are like a quartet playing a game whose winner is the one who best betrays his/her companions. For that they pair up with somebody else from the other couple, but, in the end, each is playing for on his/her own.

What is it to be a parent? What is it to be half of a married couple? Are there rules for one live in society? How to fulfill other people's expectations towards us? Or, as a matter of fact, should we? There is a lot of irony in "The god of carnage" because we behave as others expect us to, and rarely show our true colors. They criticize the children's behavior and are hoped to teach them how to behave. But how can they do that when they themselves behave worse?