Walnut Street Theatre continues its landmark 203rd season with the Philadelphia premiere of the internationally acclaimed comedy GOD OF CARNAGE. Directed by Walnut’s Artistic Producing Director Bernard Havard, the Tony Award-winning play begins previews on March 13th, opens on March 21st and runs through April 29th on the WST Mainstage.
GOD OF CARNAGE is a comedy of manners without the manners. Two children are in a fight at a neighborhood park and one is injured. Their parents meet to discuss the matter in a civilizEd Manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into hysterical savage chaos. Bad behavior has never been so good.
Written by award-winning playwright Yasmina Reza, GOD OF CARNAGE premiered in Zürich in 2006 and Paris in early 2008, before playing London’s West End, with English translation by Christopher Hampton. Following its London premiere, GOD OF CARNAGE received the Olivier Award for Best New Play of the Year. The play opened on Broadway in March of 2009 and was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including nominations for all four actors. It won three of the seven, including Best Play. The limited engagement was hailed “First class! A four-way prize fight” by The New York Times and was extended due to popular demand, closing in June of 2012. The Walnut’s production of GOD OF CARNAGE is produced in association with Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA.
Yasmina Reza is a popular French playwright, having won multiple Molière Awards (French equivalent to Tony Awards). Among her additional credits is the award-winning play ART, which won a Molière Award for Best Author, and an Olivier and Tony Award for Best Play. As he did for GOD OF CARNAGE, Christopher Hampton translated Reza’s ART. Hampton won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons and was nominated for Atonement. The film version of GOD OF CARNAGE, titled Carnage, premiered in 2011 at the Venice Film Festival.
Directing GOD OF CARNAGE is Walnut’s Producing Artistic Director Bernard Havard. He is familiar with Reza’s work, as his directorial credits include Walnut Street Theatre’s production of ART. Havard’s credits also include Someone to Watch Over Me, Skylight and A Life in the Theatre. He has spent his life in theatre as an actor, stage manager, director, managing director and producer and is currently celebrating his 29th Anniversary with the Walnut. Havard is recognized as one of America's leading theatre producers. Under his leadership, the Walnut became a not-for-profit, self-producing theatre and has gained international recognition as one of America's premier regional theatres.
A modern home becomes a ground for a battle zone in GOD OF CARNAGE featuring a set design by Robert Andrew Kovach (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps). The design team also includes Lighting Designer Shon Causer (Studio 3’s Ethel!, The Glass Menagerie), Sound Designer Joseph Simon (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I) and award-winning Costume Designer Colleen Grady (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, Miss Saigon).
The fearless cast of GOD OF CARNAGE includes real-life and on stage husband and wife team Greg Wood (Alan) and Susan Riley Stevens (Annette), both Walnut veterans. Most recently, Wood has appeared on the Walnut’s Mainstage as Captain Orton in The King and I and Stevens as Julia Sterroll in Fallen Angels. Julie Czarnecki (Veronica), last seen in Fiddler on the Roof, plays the wife of Ben Lipitz (Michael). Lipitz is a former Walnut acting apprentice and was last seen on the Mainstage in Mel Brookes’ The Producers. He returns to the Walnut having played Pumbaa in Disney’s The Lion King both on Broadway and in its nation touring production. Each cast member, a parent themselves, draws from a place of honesty to create the insanity that is parenthood.
