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Reza's God of Carnage Recoups Investment But Will Not Extend London Run; Aims for Broadway
By Mark Shenton
02 May 2008
Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, which opened at London's Gielgud Theatre March 25, has announced that it has recouped its entire £525,000 investment in a record-breaking six weeks.
The play, however, will not be recast so it must close on June 14 at the end of the original company's contracts. Producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers said in a press statement that they will take the production to New York next season and then open the play in Australia in 2010.
The production reunited Reza with the same producing and creative team that staged Art, which became a global hit after its first West End production at Wyndham's Theatre in 1996. In addition to producers Pugh and Rogers, the production also included translator Christopher Hampton (whose Les Liaisons Dangereuses has just opened at Broadway's American Airlines Theatre), director Matthew Warchus (whose production of Boeing-Boeing is about to open on Broadway), designer Mark Thompson, lighting designer Hugh Vanstone and sound designer Simon Baker.
The play tells what happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behavior of their children. Will it be a calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or will it turn into a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime?
The play stars Ralph Fiennes, Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott.
Fiennes is scheduled to appear later this year at the National Theatre in a new production of Sophocles' Oedipus in a new version by Frank McGuinness that will be directed by Jonathan Kent, who also directed him in Hamlet for the Almeida Theatre Company that subsequently transferred to Broadway's Belasco Theatre in May 1995 (for which he won that year's Tony Award for Best Actor), and also directed him in a revival of Brian Friel's Faith Healer that transferred from Dublin's Gate Theatre to Broadway's Booth Theatre in April 2006. Fiennes has also appeared extensively in other productions for both the RSC and National, including Brand, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Fathers and Sons, King John, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Playing with Trains and The Talking Cure, as well as for the Almeida in a production of Chekhov's Ivanov. His extensive film roles include appearances in "Schindler's List," "The English Patient," "Red Dragon," "The End of the Affair" and "Quiz Show."
Greig, who plays Fiennes' wife, is best known for her TV roles in the Channel 4 series "Black Books" and "Green Wing." On stage, she won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Beatrice in the RSC's production of Much Ado About Nothing that came to the Novello Theatre in December 2006. She also appeared in the same RSC season in King John.
McTeer and Stott play the other couple. McTeer was last seen in the West End in the title role of the Donmar Warehouse production of Mary Stuart that subsequently transferred to the Apollo in October 2005. She has been seen on Broadway in Ibsen's A Doll's House that transferred from the West End to the Belasco in April 1997, winning her the 1997 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Stott was in the original London cast of Reza's Art, alongside Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. He appeared most recently in the West End in another French written three-hander called Heroes at Wydham's Theatre in October 2005, alongside Richard Griffiths and John Hurt.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 0844 482 5130, or for more details, visit www.godofcarnage.com.
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