By Kicking off its new season with a bang, the International City Theatre will open with the comedic Tony Award-winning play, “God of Carnage,” by Yasmina Reza.
After debuting on Broadway in 2009, the production moved to Los Angeles in April 2011 at the Ahmanson Theatre, where it featured the same cast from its original performance.
This is ICT’s 27th season, and the first selected by caryn desai (who prefers her name lowercased), the new artistic director. Fortunately, desai was able to grab this “hot new play,” as she described, after realizing it was going to be in such high demand off Broadway.
Now, this popular play will be featured in Long Beach in a more intimate setting, where the audience can feel like they are almost on stage with the actors.
The theme of this new season is “Adults Behaving Badly… Unless They Ain’t.” “By bringing hot new plays to ICT, and incorporating this interesting theme, we hope to encourage more young people to experience the theater,” desai said.
The lively five-play series marks ICT’s commitment to new works and development, with two West Coast premieres: the political musical “The Fix” and Michael Hollinger’s provocative drama “Ghost-Writer.” The remaining two plays are Ken Ludwig’s “Leading Ladies” and the musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”
Aside from winning a Tony Award for Best Play in 2009, “God of Carnage” was recently transformed into a film entitled “Carnage,” which released last year and includes noteworthy actors such as Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly.
Since ICT was unaware of the film’s debut, its timing for “God of Carnage” as this years first play of the season worked out perfectly, according to desai.
“The theater god has been watching over me,” desai said.
Because the theme of the season is “Adults Behaving Badly,” this play focuses on parents behaving badly. The irony behind the story is that initially two young boys in elementary school have a fight, and their parents decide to meet in order to resolve this conflict in a civil manner. However, civil is the last word that can describe this long evening filled with loud arguments, finger-pointing and name-calling.
As ICT describes it, this is a comedic play about manners… without the manners. Although these parents are trying to teach their sons how to co-exist, they find out that sometimes it is impossible to do that themselves because of the human condition.
There are only four main characters in the play, and each actor most definitely deserved their spot, according to desai. After reviewing thousands of submissions, only about 30 people received callbacks. In addition to being committed and intelligent actors, their characters are universal enough for any parent or spouse to relate to.
This play makes audience members think about how they would react in a situation like this. How would you be able to communicate your child’s faults without placing yourself at fault? Through comedy, you are able to realize the truth about imperfections and flaws, because even though you’re laughing about them, you’re still being reminded that no one is perfect, including yourself.
“God of Carnage” runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm, Jan. 27 through Feb. 19. Tickets are $37 on Thursdays; and $44 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, except opening night, which is $55 and includes a reception with the actors following the performance. International City Theatre is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center at 300 E. Ocean Blvd. For reservations and information, visit InternationalCityTheatre.org.
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