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God of Carnage

by Yasmina Reza

Play Guide

Snowy Range Summer Theatre at the University of Wyoming June 23 – June 27, 2020 @ 7:30 p.m.

God of Carnage Play Guide compiled and written by Jenefer Pasqua, Snowy Range Summer

Theatre Dramaturgical Intern.

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Snowy Range Summer Theatre....................... Page 3

The Story and Characters ................................ Page 4

Yasmina Reza ................................................. Page 5

Interview with Director Jason Pasqua ............. Pages 6-7

Helicopter and Snowplow Parents .................. Pages 8-10

References in the Play ..................................... Pages 11-16

Privileged People Behaving Badly ................. Page 17

About the Dramaturg ...................................... Page 17

Table of Contents

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Snowy Range Summer Theatre

at the University of Wyoming

The Snowy Range Summer Theatre season runs at the University of Wyoming

each June and July and generally features three productions, and sometimes one

touring production.

We are proud of the long history and success

of Snowy Range Summer Theatre, which at

68 years old is the second oldest program

west of the Mississippi! The summer

company each year is comprised of current

students and alumni working in the field, as

well as outside professionals.

The

summer season is staged within a six to

eight-week session and offers student

performers and technicians valuable

practical theatre experience and a stipend.

Summer company members also have the

option to earn up to 2 hours of academic

credit if they wish.

Outstanding junior and/or senior theatre majors at UW (particularly those students

seeking a professional degree) are strongly encouraged to audition for the acting

company or apply for the technical company. An effort is made to select qualified

students from UW to participate in the company along with students who are

recruited from throughout the nation.

Source: http://www.uwyo.edu/thd/whats-playing/snowy-range-festival/index.html

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By Yasmina Reza

Translated by Christopher Hampton

THE STORY: A playground altercation between eleven-year old boys

brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the

matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting

progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off,

leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.

CHARACTERS:

Alan Raleigh - A lawyer who is married to Annette and father to

Benjamin.

Annette Raleigh - Works in “wealth management” and is married to

Alan and mother to Benjamin.

Michael Novak - Owner of a wholesale company and is married to

Veronica and father to Henry.

Veronica Novak - A writer who is married to Michael and mother to

Henry.

Source: www.dramatists.com

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born May 1, 1959, Paris France, French

dramatist, novelist, director, and actress best known for her brief satiric plays that

speak to contemporary middle-class anxieties.

Reza was the daughter of Jewish parents who had immigrated to France. Her

Iranian father was an engineer, businessman, and a pianist, and her mother was a

violinist originally from Budapest. Reza studied at the University of Paris X,

Nanterre, and at the Drama School of Jacques Lecoq before working as an actress.

The first two plays she wrote, both winners of a Molière Award,

were Conversations après un enterrement (1986; Conversations After a Burial),

involving death and sex, and La Traversée de l’hiver (1989; “Winter Crossing”),

about the unlikely friendship that develops between six people spending their

vacation at a Swiss mountain resort.

It was the play, Art, however, which premiered in 1994, that brought Reza wide

notice. In the play three friends quarrel over a work of modern art—which is, in

effect, a blank canvas—thereby showing just how fragile friendship can be. The

play was in production on major stages worldwide virtually continuously after its

opening. It won Molière Awards for best author, play, and production; a

British Laurence Olivier Award for best comedy; and a Tony Award for best play.

Another hit, L’Homme du hasard (1995; The Unexpected Man), was a two-

character play set on a train traveling from Paris to Frankfurt. Following long

monologues by a self-absorbed male author and his female seatmate and fan, the

play ends with a brief dialogue between the two that centers on people’s need for

one another.

In the satiric comedy Le Dieu du carnage (2006; God of Carnage), Reza focused

on two couples who meet to discuss a fight between their young sons. The play

made its London debut in 2008 and subsequently won a Laurence Olivier Award.

The Broadway production of God of Carnage, which opened a year later, was also

critically acclaimed, and it earned a Tony Award for best play. For a 2011 film

version (titled Carnage), Reza cowrote the screenplay with Roman Polanski, who

also directed. Reza’s later plays include Comment vous racontez la partie (2011;

“How You Talk the Game”) and Bella figura (2015; “Beautiful Figure”), which

she wrote for the Schaubühne in Berlin and later directed in a 2017 Paris

production.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yasmina-Reza

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Q: What inspired you to direct this play?

A: There were several things that drew me to this play. The first thing was that my

wife and I were lucky enough to see the original Broadway production of this play

in 2009. The production was fantastic! Another reason I was drawn to direct this

play was because Yasmina Reza writes great plays and dramatizes complex aspects

of the human experiences in funny and touching ways. I love directing work that

has great writing and reflects the social and political times of our society.

Q: What are some interesting characteristics of this play?

A: God of Carnage is about marriage and about being a parent. The play is

ostensibly about what we are going to do about what we are going to do about the

quarrel of the children, and they are not even present in the play. With the absence

of the children, the play obviously becomes about the parents and their marriages. I

have stolen this line from a TV show, and I love it…“When you’re married you

say “I’m sorry” a lot. You say ‘I’m sorry’ when you mean it. You say ‘I’m sorry’

when you don’t mean it. You say, ‘I’m sorry’ when you have no earthly idea what

could be wrong this time.” This play is about the day everybody gets tired of

saying “I’m sorry.” There are personal and political implications to this statement.

What makes this play unusual is there are a lot of ways to dramatize or explore

what a marriage is, and what a relationship is, and this play takes the “what

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happens when people stop lying to each other and themselves?” approach. What

are the deals we make with each other and with ourselves? This play reminds me

Yasmina Reza’s other play, Art. On the surface it’s about a painting (that the

audience never sees until the end). But what the play is actually about is two

friends and their conceptions of each other.

Q: What is the relevance of this play in 2020?

A: [All of us] are going to have to start having more honest conversations with

each other. That can be scary and that can be painful. We’re going to have to be

ready for some things we’re uncomfortable hearing, but you also need to be ready

to hear some things come out of your mouth, that you might also not be

comfortable with. Like I said, what happens when we stop saying “I’m sorry?”

That doesn’t mean we have to go around and apologize for everything, but I do

think we’re going to have to start having honest conversations with each other

about politics and societal norms. We all tell ourselves things that get us through

the day. That’s what makes the world work. But we better make sure we’re not

living in a fantasy world. Otherwise, there is nothing to hold on to anymore. Who

am I? Who are the people around me? We probably need to be a little more honest

about that.

*This interview was edited for clarification purposes.

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By Jenefer Pasqua

As an educator and parent, I believe one of the most interesting aspects of

the play, God of Carnage, is the absence of the children and always talked about

by adults on stage. The two boys involved in the fight are nowhere to be found.

The entire play centers on the conflict between the two boys, Benjamin and Henry,

however they never appear on stage. In my opinion, Reza uses the absence of the

children to highlight the behaviors of the adults. In this manner, the adults are

representative of the children. As a teacher of students at all levels in the K-12

public school system, I can tell you that most children will solve problems on their

own with little intervention from adults. Most often when a violent act occurs, the

children resolve the conflict immediately thereafter. Of course, this is not always

the case, but often, the children will find a way to resolve their problems and move

forward in an amicable manner.

The behaviors demonstrated by the parents, Alan and Annette Raleigh, and

Michael and Veronica Novak, are not unique to this play. Several terms have been

coined by child psychologists in the last decade that clearly describe the type of

parents in the play. “Helicopter” and “Snowplow” are two terms that come to mind

when considering this behavior. For those unfamiliar with the terms, “Helicopter”

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refers to a parent who helps their child do everything. For example, In my first year

of teaching I remember an incident with a parent of one of my third-grade students.

The third-grade boy was quite shy and relied on his mother for everything. She

would walk him into the classroom every day and would ask a list of questions

before she would exit the classroom. She would lurk in the hallway during

classroom instruction, peering through the classroom door window. At one point, I

shared this incident with a colleague during lunch, and she said, “Oh yeah, I had

him in first grade, and I had to get the principal to ban Mom from my classroom.”

A “Snowplow” parent is someone who removes all barriers in front of their

children. Writing in Psychology Today, Peter Gray, a professor at Boston College,

observed that such parents “do what they can to hide their snowplow efforts from

their children, to spare them the humiliation of knowing that their 'success' did not

come from their own merits.” Gray added, “Their snowplowing is aimed not just at

clearing paths and opening doors but also at inflating their children's egos”

(Zimmer, 1).

Are the parents in God of Carnage both types of parents? They are

attempting to remove the barrier of “now what” from the children. Benjamin and

Henry had a “fight” with a stick, now what? Well, the boys do not get to decide.

The parents meet to shield their children from the problem-solving process and to

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determine what is best without the children present. Are the parents Helicopter or

Snowplow parents? Or are they both?

Works Cited

Zimmer, Ben. “Snowplowing”: When Parents Try to Clear all Obstacles; After the

Rise of 'Helicopter Parenting' there's Now another Way to Overprotect

children—seen at its Extreme in the College Admissions Scandal.” Wall

Street Journal (Online), Mar 29, 2019. ProQuest,

http://libproxy.uwyo.edu/login/?url=https://search-proquest-

com.libproxy.uwyo.edu/docview/2199260046?accountid=14793.

If you would like to read more on this subject, see the book, The Coddling of the American

Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg

Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Books, 2018.

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References in the Play

French Food References

WHAT IS CLAFOUTIS?

Clafoutis (pronounced klah-foo-tee) is a dessert from central France.

Clafoutis is most often made with black cherries in an eggy batter that

resembles a flan in the middle and a cake around the outer edges.

WHAT THE CLAFOUTIS IS REALLY ABOUT.

Veronica claims to serve Clafoutis for her love of the dessert and for the

fact that her mother-in-law gave her the recipe. However, in my opinion,

the real reason she serves the dessert is to show how “cultured” she is. The serving of the dessert is not about the dessert itself; it is about

demonstrating the appearance of wealth and status.

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Recipe for Clafoutis

YIELD Serves 4–6

INGREDIENTS

1 cup whole milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and

butter until the sugar is dissolved. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Pour the batter into

a cast iron skillet or pie pan.

2. Now add your favorite fruit or flavoring (see below). Bake until the clafoutis is beautifully

puffed and golden, 35–40 minutes. Serve immediately.

3. Clafoutis Variations:

Concord Grape Clafoutis: Once the batter is in the skillet, scatter 2 cups slightly crushed

Concord or other black or red grapes on top.

Cherry Clafoutis: Scatter 2 cups pitted cherries onto the batter once it's poured into pie

plates.

Source: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basic-clafoutis-51208430

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New York Area References

BQE: Acronym for the Brooklyn - Queens Expressway provides a link from

Brooklyn and Queens points to the East River crossings. Also referred to as

Interstate 278.

Cobble Hill Park: A small city park located in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of

Brooklyn. The park displays a rose garden, playgrounds, and a dolphin fountain.

F Train: Portion of the Manhattan Transit Authority that connects Queens,

Manhattan, and Brooklyn.

Secaucus: A New Jersey town located 4.5 miles from Manhattan.

Whitman Park: This park honors Walt Whitman, a poet, journalist, and native

New Yorker.

Theatre/Art/Cultural References

Bacon: Francis Bacon was an Irish-born British painter who became prominent in

the art world with his work Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion,

which first exhibited in 1945 and caused quite a stir. The figures in the painting

show stylistic attributes that continued throughout Bacon’s work, including

physical distortion, violence, and emotionally raw imagery. He often created works

that were contemplations on prior works of

art that attracted his attention including his

famous Study after Velázquez's Portrait of

Pope Innocent X (1953) which referenced the

earlier work, but in a distorted fashion.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

once famously described him as "that man

who paints those dreadful pictures;”

however, despite Ms. Thatcher’s rebuke of his work,

he was respected in his own time and is considered the

most important British painter since J.M.W. Turner.

Source: https://www.arizonatheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/GodofCarnage-Final-Playguide.pdf

Three Studies for Figures

at the Base of a Crucifixion

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Charley’s Aunt: A three-act farce written by Brandon Thomas. This story is about

young Charlie Wykeham and his friend Jack Chesney attempting to obtain and

arrange love

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita: was a Japanese painter best known for his

participation in the bohemian culture during the 1910s in Montparnasse,

Paris. Foujita’s strange yet representational paintings often depict

himself, cats, and women. He found nearly immediate success in Paris

and, despite having no connections beforehand, Foujita was able to sell

and live off his art. Born on November 27, 1886 in Tokyo, Japan, he

went on to study at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and

Music in 1910. After his move to Paris,

Foujita met and became friends with

prominent avant-garde artists of the day

like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo

Modigliani, and Chaïm Soutine. His work

can now be found in the collections of the

Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York, the National

Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among

others. Foujita died on January 29, 1968 in Zürich, Switzerland at the age

of 81.

Oskar Kokoschka: was an Austrian artist and poet known for his

Expressionist portraits and landscapes.

Characterized by staccato brushstrokes

and bright colors, the artist created

works that seem to shiver with energy.

Born on March 1, 1886, in Pöchlarn,

Austria, he grew up in Vienna and at 18

was awarded a scholarship to the city’s

School of Arts and Crafts. In 1908,

however, he was dismissed from the

institution after he displayed works

considered disturbing in both content

and technique. Throughout the 1920s and

The Dream

The Bride of the Wind (Tempest)

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1930s, he travelled across Europe, developing his dis tinctive method of

exaggerated portraiture that dramatized his sitters’ psychological states.

Having already fled the Nazi regime once, in 1937, his work was deemed

“degenerate art” by the Nazis and he was forced to escape to England . He

died on February 22, 1989 in Montreux, Switzerland at the age of 93.

Today, his works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of

Chicago, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

in New York, and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, among others.

Kouros Cologne: A cologne by Yves Saint Laurent. Scents of Clary sage,

artemisia, bergamot, and coriander.

Shroud of Turin: The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot linen cloth bearing an

image of a crucified man that has become a popular Catholic icon. For

some, it is the authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ.

*All images sourced from Google fair use images.

Medical References

Ataxia: The word “ataxia,” comes from the Greek word, “a taxis” meaning

“without order or incoordination”. “Ataxia is a degenerative disease of the nervous

system. Many symptoms of Ataxia mimic those of being drunk, such as slurred

speech, stumbling, falling, and incoordination. These symptoms are caused by

damage to the cerebellum, the part of the brain that is responsible for coordinating

movement. Ataxia treatment involves a combination of medication to treat

symptoms and therapy to improve quality of life.

Beta Blockers: also known as beta-adrenergic blocking agents, medication used to

reduce your blood pressure. Beta blockers work to block the effects of epinephrine

(adrenaline).

Source: www.ataxia.org

Source::https://www.history.com/news/shroud-turin-facts

Source: http://www.artnet.com/artists/oskar-kokoschka/

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Endodontic Surgery: Endodontic surgery is more commonly called a “root

canal,” describes any surgical procedure involving teeth roots and the surrounding

area. Dentists often deal with inflammation or infection when performing

endodontic procedures.

The Lancet: The Lancet is an independent medical journal founded in 1823.

International References

Darfur Conflict: A conflict that remained unresolved centered on the Darfur region in western Sudan. The conflict began in 2003 when rebels

launched an insurrection to protest what they contended was the Sudanese

government’s disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population.

Ethiopian-Eritrean War: A conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Eritrea

invaded Ethiopia in May of 1998 and ended in June 2008. The two countries were

fighting over land, and it is estimated between 70,000 and 100,000 people died

during the conflict.

Kinshasha: The capitol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Hague: It is not only the seat of the Dutch government, Parliament and

Supreme Court, but also the location of many international dispute resolution

organizations including the International Court of Justice and the International

Criminal Court. Behind New York and Geneva, The Hague is the third major

hosting city of the United Nations and boasts the Peace Palace, funded by

philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration...

Sheba: The name of a kingdom in Southern Arabia. The kingdom is mentioned in

the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Quran.

Source: https://www.arizonatheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/GodofCarnage-Final-Playguide.pdf

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sudan/Sudan-under-Bashir

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Privileged People Behaving Badly By Jenefer Pasqua

At several points in the play, derogatory slurs are used by one or more

characters. No doubt these characters consider themselves otherwise

good people. But with tempers flaring and communication breaking

down, their blind spots come into focus. Like all of us, the characters

imagine themselves as one thing, when in fact, the truth is more

complex. Michael, in his frustration with Veronica, uses a racial slur to

attack what he perceives as the hollowness of her good intentions and

self-righteousness. Veronica and Michael have invited Alan and Annette

to play a game called Apology. Veronica does not appear to be playing

the game correctly because her self-righteous attitude prevents her from

being gracious enough to see what is right in front of her. Of all the

characters, Alan responds most negatively to this behavior because he

sees and calls out Veronica’s hypocrisy. If these characters in the play,

and we as audience members, are to have truly open and civil

conversations, then the first person we need to be honest with is

ourselves.

About the Dramaturg

Jenefer Pasqua is a Wyoming native. She graduated from the University of

Wyoming with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a master’s degree in

Teaching from City University of Seattle, and master’s of science degree in Special

Education from Western Governors University. Currently, she teaches high school

special education students at Central High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She

has more than 15 years teaching experience at all grade levels K-12. In addition,

Jenefer has served as an adjudicator for the Wyoming State Thespian Festival

adjudicating in the areas of performance, publicity, and costume design. She has

been married to her husband, Jason, for 18 years, and they have a 12-year-old son

named Beckett. Jenefer loves to garden, read, travel, and play with her two dogs,

Rosie and Midas.