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The God of Carnage: A Play (Ff Plays) |  | Author: Yasmina Reza
Creator: Christopher Hampton
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $7.22
as of 9/6/2010 09:36 EDT details
You Save: $5.78 (44%)
In Stock
New (29) Used (19) from $4.75
Seller: pbshop
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 57,518
Media: Paperback
Pages: 80
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 4.8 x 0.3
ISBN: 0571242588
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9780571242580
ASIN: 0571242588
Publication Date: April 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| | ISBN13: 9780571242580 | | | Condition: New | | | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
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.” 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. 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.” "Reza holds the mirror up to bourgeois hypocrisy with the savage indignation of a born satirist."—The Guardian (UK) "A triumph! Brilliantly translated by Christopher Hampton."—Daily Express (UK)
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 A Brilliant Play May 26, 2009
John F. Rooney
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
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.
god of carnage July 9, 2009
Barbara Moglia (N.J.)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
 OK June 18, 2010
Vance
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am going to be a contraian. This was certainly well written, entertaining, but where did it ultimately end. What was the message. Couples arguing over their children. Yes, they were fully realized characters, and I was entertained, but the 5 star reviews? A 3, maybe almost 4, is the best I can do.
From May D July 20, 2010
May D (New York, New York United States)
It was wonderful to read this play and know that it was okay that I missed the Broadway performance ...
Which is what I love about being able to order plays from you.
I enjoyed imagining James Gandolfiini, especially, in the lead role.
The financial choice between a Broadway ticket and a published play? Well, you do the math!
May D
 Brilliance? Not Quite. July 14, 2010
Zachary Pinkham
I had continued to see sparkling reviews of this, Yasmina Reza's newest work. I was familiar with, "Art", which I found to be nothing more than three stars, but since this ran on Broadway featuring a number of actors I highly respect, I decided to read it in a bookstore before purchasing.
Glad I did.
Now, despite the fact I gave the play a rating of two stars, it is NOT a "bad" play, and hell, it's even entertaining, but I must ask a question we must all ask of any sort of literature: what's the point?
As far as "The God of Carnage" goes, nothing.
Two couples fight over their kids, throwing back and forth insults sometimes witty, sometimes not, in a well translated (but not without it's occasional slip-ups) French piece by a French playwright who's notably French works can't help but be really French in nature ("The Bald Soprano" shout-out!). While the couples hurl insults - and one of them hurls the contents of her stomach (an entirely unnecessary action), the play seems to drag as it progresses, changing subjects from the kids to the parents themselves. Now, this is a nice little idea, but nothing really INTERESTING is said, and no transformations occur in the characters that give the conflict a POINT; unlike in "Art".
The play is fast paced and sometimes funny, but as the reviews stated, the show was really made great on Broadway by the wonderful cast and excellent direction (as I heard most of the play was physical comedy). Too bad it doesn't translate to the written page; if anyone cares what I think, I'd venture that Neil Labute's "Reasons to be Pretty" was better than this.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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