March 19, 2019: The Keegan Theatre is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for the upcoming production of the 2009 Tony Award-winner for Best Play, GOD OF CARNAGE by Yasmina Reza (also the playwright of the 1998 Tony Award-winner for Best Play, ART). In this shrewd and vicious comedy, Reza ferociously and hilariously strips her affluent, over-achieving characters down to their savage core, as they gleefully flout the terms of human civility.
GOD OF CARNAGE is directed by Shirley Serotsky (of 2018’s hit world premiere at Keegan, OTHER LIFE FORMS) and features Keegan Artistic Director Susan Marie Rhea and Lolita Clayton, who reunite after playing opposite each other in Keegan’s acclaimed 2016 production of AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER, for which Rhea garnered a Helen Hayes Nomination for Leading Actress in a Play. Rhea and Clayton are joined by Vishwas and DeJeanette Horne (Clayton’s real-life husband), making their Keegan stage debuts.
A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of upper-middle-class Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.
“Elegant, acerbic, and entertainingly fueled on pure bile. It’s Reza’s sharpest work since ART.” – Variety
“GOD OF CARNAGE delivers the cathartic release of watching other people’s marriages go boom. A study in the tension between civilized surface and savage instinct, this play is itself a satisfyingly primitive entertainment with an intellectual veneer.” – The New York Times
The GOD OF CARNAGE creative team includes Cate Brewer (Assistant Director), Liz Gossens (Costume Design), Cindy Landrum Jacobs (Properties Design), Matthew J. Keenan (Set Design), Niusha Nawab (Sound Design), Katie McCreary (Lighting Design), and Dan Deiter (Stage Manager).
“We’re thrilled to have Shirley back at Keegan in the director’s chair,” says Rhea. “As an actor, performing in GOD OF CARNAGE is a dream come true — and as an artistic director, I knew this show required a director with a clear vision and keen understanding of the nuanced issues at play in Reza’s script. Shirley’s respect for the text and thoughtful, detailed directing style is exactly what GOD OF CARNAGE — with all its humor, darkness, and complexity — calls for. With this cast and amazing design team, we’re all excited to start bringing this brilliant dark comedy to life.”
GOD OF CARNAGE runs May 4-25, 2019 at The Keegan Theatre in Washington, DC. The press opening is Tuesday, May 7, 2019. This is Keegan Theatre’s 22nd season performing in Washington, DC.
