Farmer’s Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo is staging “God of Carnage” in an extended run through May 6. The play by Yasmina Reza won a best play Tony Award in 2009 and is described as “A comedy of manners without the manners.” Lorraine Caron reports:

There are four characters in “God of Carnage.” The action opens and stays in the home of Michael and Veronica Novak, as they host a visit from Alan and Annette Raleigh to discuss a playground scuffle their two 11-year-old sons have had. The parents are all on their best behavior at first. Coffee and cake is offered and accepted and they sit in the living room and discuss how they want to turn the incident into a “teaching moment” for their youngsters.

The downward slide begins with some defensiveness on both sides when questions are raised about parenting techniques. Alan, working on an important business deal, keeps interrupting the discussion to take cell phone calls. Attempts to continue polite discourse fall apart and soon everyone is on their own as attacks come from all quarters:

Eventually spouse turns against spouse, a wife accuses her husband of taking sides. Tears start to fall, hysteria sets in and, it’s soon obvious that teaching the youngsters how to handle conflict may be completely beyond these two sets of parents.

It’s ninety-minutes of moments to make the audience cringe and laugh, sometimes all at the same time. Scott Burkell plays Alan and Joe Aiello plays Michael. As veterans of many theatrical productions in Southwest Michigan, at the Barn Theatre in Augusta and Farmer’s Alley, these two have been on stage many times together. Aiello says the play really takes it out of them physically:

[Joe Aiello] “We’re kind of tired emotionally, too because you really ride the roller coaster for those 90 minutes. As actors it’s a lot of fun.”

Burkell says the playwright seems to really understand family dynamics.

[Scott Burkell] “How you can talk about your spouse but no one else can. How you can talk about your kid but no one else can. And, allegiances change throughout the play and change on a dime.”

God of Carnage has extended it’s run at Farmer’s Alley Theatre and will be staged through May 6.