A poster with “God of Carnage” displayed over a cute hamster leaves much for the imagination, but this production was beyond anything I ever pictured.
The St. Olaf Theater Department kicked off its 2022-2023 season last weekend with “God of Carnage” from October 6 through October 9 in Haugen Theater. Directed by Bill Sonnega, this 100 minute dark comedy tells the story of two overbearing couples, Alan and Annette Raleigh (played by Aaron Dumalag ‘26 and Piper Kuehl ‘26) and Micheal and Veronica Novak (played by Will McIntyre ‘23 and Maeve Carroll ‘24) deciding to meet after a violent altercation between their two sons. The Raleigh’s son, Benjamin smacked the Novak’s son, Henry with a stick, knocking some teeth out, after he rejected him from joining his gang and calling him a “snitch.” Despicable. The play was originally written by French dramatist, Yasmina Reza and translated by playwright Christopher Hampton, and has been performed all over the world.
In an interview with the Messenger, Sonnega siad “it has shown to be one of those stories that resonates in a lot of different nations and a lot of different cultures.”
“This is an issue that I know a lot of students are invested into because we’re all children, somebody’s, at some point,” Sonnega said.
The stage was deceptively calm as my roommate and I walked into Haugen. Jazzy music played in the background, and the setup looked like a nice living room with simple furniture surrounding a coffee table. My eyes went to the chandelier made of a spiral of string lights and dramatic words. The first-half hour was slow, with humor relying on long silences and awkward conversation, which was not my cup of tea. The mayhem steadily crept up, starting with some morbid comedy involving the family hamster, but after Veronica vomits on the Novak’s table, the situation spiraled out of control immediately. The characters get drunk, destroy each other’s things, and turn on each other every minute. I could barely tear my eyes away. It all ends with an unresolved tension that could be cut with a knife. The entire crowd gave a standing ovation after the production was finished. I took some time to process the chaos that occurred afterward.
Sonnega described this spectacle beforehand. “As a director, one thing that I was very interested in is the creation of moments in a play like this, such heightened intensity that neither the characters nor the audience know what’s gonna happen next. And that’s part of the magic that we try to create, that there’s some disruption, some incident that takes place that essentially puts the characters and audience into the same position … the kind of creative and production work that goes into that, involving a lot of people, is such a challenging and rewarding process,” Sonnega said.
At first, I was worried that this background knowledge would spoil the play for me, but I was so invested in the characters that the drama was shocking anyways.
Overall, I enjoyed the play. The actors were incredible, and I would recommend it to others. Since it’s no longer showing, students should check out future shows. Four more productions are expected throughout the year. The department will perform Richard O’ Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” in mid-November.
Actor on God of Carnage
What is your name/pronouns?
Maeve Carroll ’24, she/they
What were you most excited about for the audience to see during the show?
I mean the easy answer is the puke because how many shows do you see where someone vomits on stage? But I think my thoughtful answer is truly the entire show just because it is so hard to explain. I loved being able to see people’s reaction to the true plot of the show in real time just because everyone kind of goes into it blind.
What do you think are the most controversial aspects of the play? How do you think they are addressed in a meaningful way to the audience?
I think in playing Veronica I was really aware of the way the show addresses misogyny and specifically how it affects married couples — like women living in a house with misogynistic men and the toll that takes. I think the show does an excellent job of just giving a sort of slice of what life is like (albeit dramatized) when you’re living with this kind of hateful individual like Michael. Reza shows us a woman living in her home and the way she is belittled. We rarely get to see that kind of realistic depiction of subtle abuse and I just think it’s brilliant and heart wrenching.
Did the content of the play resonate with you in any way? How so?
I think in a show about parenting and marriages you truly cannot help but to think about your parents and your parents’ marriage. So yeah in a way that is not out of direct experience with being a parent or married person but more out of having witnessed my parents It did definitely resonate there.
Interview conducted over email by Reagan Weeks, Contributing Writer
