God of Carnage

A play at the Gielgud Theatre starring Ralph Fiennes, Tasmin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott. I was so glad I had this recommended to me - by two totally different sources. It a French play by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton (a wonderful pedigree then) and centres on the veneer of middle class respectability that is so easily punctured. Janet McTeer is a very caring liberal mother who is shocked when her son is hit by a stick wielding son of Ralph Fiennes' high flying lawyer currently defending a pharmaceutical company's latest, dubious pain relief 'cure'. He spemds most of the evening arguing on a mobile phone - how many people do we know like that? During the summit meeting between the two sets of parents things quickly fall apart as each oscillate between conciliation and aggression, desire to apportion blame, and escape labelling as a bad parent. Far from supporting one another Tasmin Greig and Ken Stott (respective wife and husband) regularly put the boot in to both their spouses and the opposing couple. Middle class pretentions are lampooned and laid bare - but not in the usual obvious semi-envious way much beloved of the comedians of the 1980s and 1990s, there isn't much ridicule. The intensity is maintained throughout the whole on act production, and this is very funny - probably because it is realistic - we all know people who are either exactly like one (or all) of these characters, or we ourselves contain enough elements as to make the humour slightly uneasy. Well wort seeing - even if Ralph Fiennes did appear to be doing an impression of Leonard Rossiter from time to time. Rating: 9/10