Yasmina Reza's Play 'God of Carnage' Comes to LTV Studios

It sounds like a simple enough storyline — two boys get into a fight on the playground. One of the boys is injured by the other in the altercation, so the parents of both children involved decide that they need to meet to discuss the situation in a rational and civilized manner.

Then all hell breaks loose.

This, in a nutshell, is the plotline of Yasmina Reza’s play “God of Carnage,” which will be presented at LTV Studios in Wainscott from May 1 through May 11. Directed by John Kroft, the play stars Rachel Feldman and Joe Pallister as Annette and Alan, the parents of the boy responsible for the injury, while Daniela Mastropietro and Edward W. Kassar play Veronica and Michael, the parents of the second boy who is the one who is hurt.

This production is presented by The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton at LTV in association with Edward Kassar’s theater company, Kassar Productions. During a break in an early table read of the script at LTV Studios in late April, the cast and director sat down to share their impressions of it. Specifically, they offered their takes on the complexities in the play that take it far beyond the surface description.

Kassar explained that he decided to produce this play because he enjoys Reza’s work as a playwright. In 2019, both he and Pallister starred in a production of Reza’s “Art” at Guild Hall, which, like “God of Carnage,” involves a small group of people who begin their evening with a civil debate that soon devolves into arguments and accusations that tread the depths of the human psyche.

“I like this play and I wanted to do it with friends,” Kassar said of “God of Carnage.” He first came to know John Kroft, not as a director, but as an actor after they appeared together in Michael Puzzo’s two-hander “The Dirty Talk,” which was directed by Stephen Hamilton in a short run in late 2023 at The Clubhouse in Wainscott. They teamed up again as actors on the LTV Studios’ stage last year for Martin McDonagh’s controversial play “The Pillowman,” which was the first fully-fledged show presented under the banner of Kassar’s production company, again under the direction of Hamilton.

“John and I became fast acquaintances,” said Kassar. “John showed his proclivity for directing us in ‘The Pillowman.’ He had directorial instincts and I asked if he was interested in directing another play if we did one, and he said, ‘Yes.’ And it’s everything I’ve been expecting.”

For his part, though Kroft has an extensive list of acting credentials, he comes to this production with a modicum of directorial experience — a short film in high school and a couple of 10 minute plays he helmed as a student at The Juilliard School is about the extent of it. But he is quickly finding his footing as a stage director.

“I wasn’t nervous, because I had such a great experience working with Eddie and have the confidence with him,” Kroft said. “This is a short play, but it moves like a freight train. It’s like a gunshot. There’s so much that happens in a short amount of time. It’s actually quite funny. It would be easy to play this just for laughs, but the title ‘God of Carnage,’ is a title of mythic proportions.

“They talk a lot in the play about things that are primeval. They really get at them, if you had to make a short list of things that would trigger people in their primal instincts,” he added. “The table work, when we’re sitting here and reading it really closely, we ask questions like ‘Who are you saying this to? Could this also mean something else?’”

In a word, the answer is “yes,” in a Yasmina Reza play, it can always mean something else. In terms of the personalities of the four parents in the show, Alan (Pallister) is described as a lawyer who is perpetually on the phone, while his wife, Annette (Feldman), manages her husband’s wealth. Conversely, Michael (Kassar) is a wholesaler while wife Veronica (Mastropietro) is working to write a book.

“There is a blue collar/white collar thing that comes up in the play, but it’s not super central to what makes the characters different,” said Kroft when asked about the class differences between the couples. “Two of the things I think about being central are, one, it’s a question of morality and two, when do you not care? How far does that moral sense extend? Is it just to immediate family? To people you know? To people who know people you know? Does it extend to pets or animals? This comes up in a big way — the idea of the masks that we all wear in polite society for other people and even the ones we wear with the people we love.”

Kassar expanded on that concept by noting that the play, as a whole, explores themes that are universal, especially in today’s climate.

“We’re viewing a situation with the same facts at hand, and yet viewing it completely differently. These four characters are attempting to be civil and sure about it. But they devolve into children themselves,” Kassar said. “I do like the characters. I like what John said — it’s like they’re wearing masks. There’s also a lot of humor in this play.”

When asked to describe what she thinks of her character, Veronica, Mastropietro said, “I like that she’s hopeful. You have to believe in progress, the hope of evolution. I like that she’s concerned about parenting.

“What do I hate about her? There are some things as an actor I disagree with,” she continued. “I don’t like that she’s controlling and wants to control her husband, the situation and how she raises her kid. Because she’s that way when she becomes vulnerable, it hits harder. I like having that juxtaposition.”

Much of the complexity in the script revolves around the notion of the public facing persona vs. the private one that is known only by one’s closest family members. In her role as Annette, Feldman explains how she sees the two sides of her character.

“I want to present a certain way, but I’m not necessarily that way as a parent myself,” Feldman said. “You don’t want to be the parent who thinks that your child can do no wrong, but you also want to protect and defend your baby, not letting people get in their baby’s way.”

For Pallister, as Michael, the overwhelming workload that both he and his stage wife are engaged in keeps them occupied to the point where they can avoid confronting what may be more troublesome interpersonal issues below the surface.

“I think we’re both so busy, the relationship is kind of not at the forefront of our lives,” Pallister explained. “Our schedules take priority and we’re OK with that. It’s probably better that way, If we had to face each other more regularly, we’d fall apart.”

Kroft notes that one of the most intriguing aspects of the play is the way in which allegiances are constantly shifting throughout the play — pitting expected allies against one another at times, depending on the situation.

“You have two couples and the allegiances are ones you would expect of a husband and wife as a team,” Kroft said. “But then it switches, and it’s men vs. women. Sometimes it’s the opposite partners who are finding camaraderie with the member of the other couple.”

“Being on your friend’s team is not always agreeing with them,” Kassar added. “I think it’s being there for them, but calling them out when you don’t agree with them. It’s like working for a boss who will never reprimand you in front of the customers, but when they descend into chaos, they start doing that.”

“I like the writing of this play. It’s beautiful and seamless. There are so many shifts in allegiances, but they’re not crystal clear,” said Pallister, who added that his wife, Anita Boyer, is the stage manager for this show, which she described as an emotional lava lamp. “Everyone’s emotions are drifting back and forth. It’s beautiful how it’s done and so much fun to work on, but it’s equally terrifying. You can make 10 choices of what you’re saying and it can work.”

“Aside from the fact it’s really funny, what I appreciate is how each character is clearly defined,” Kroft said. “You get a strong sense of their personality, but all of them are walking contradictions . They are paradoxically saying one thing and they mean another. That’s a tricky needle to thread and it shows.”

The idea that the truth of any situation is fluid, depending on how a given group of people are interpreting it at any given moment, is a concept that hits home for Kassar.

“I liked what John and Joe said,” he noted. “The characters are clearly defined, but as humans, we’re defined differently based on the moment. The lava lamp example is, I think, wonderful. Our worst moments don’t define us, and sometimes we react verbally in ways we’re not proud of — but we get pushed and we’re all human.”

The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton at LTV Studios in association with Kassar Productions will present “God of Carnage” on Thursday, May 1, Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, at 2 p.m., on Thursday, May 8, and Friday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday, May 10, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and the final performance on Sunday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $25 in advance at ltveh.org. Student tickets are $15 and VIP café table seating is available for $60, which includes a drink. Tickets are $30 at the door.  LTV Studios is at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.