GOD OF CARNAGE Reviews- Page 3

[jordangirl]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 2:20pm

Ok, thanks. I'd just never heard the phrase "I can't spell her fondness" before. Was a little lost there.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/3/09 at 7:22pm

The Village Voice is Mixed:

Positive for the actors, Negative for the play

"What these four inventive actors can do is make the play's chug-chug trip through all the possible permutations of the setup seem natural. Finding some inner reality, God knows how, in which to ground these stick figures, they offer up what look like spontaneous shadings, shifts of tone, and ebbs and flows of energy or tempo, all of which make the carefully pre-formatted events seem to be blossoming, vividly and surprisingly, as you watch. The uniformly high quality of their work presumably owes something to Warchus's direction, though apart from Art, his New York track record, as a handler of actors, has been on the dismal side. Some aspect of this uninviting work about unappealing people must have revitalized him.

Maybe it was the simple combination of personalities he cast, since all four are at the top of their form: Daniels has been as good as this before, but rarely better; Davis's mix of soft and acerbic is more strongly focused than in previous stage performances. Harden, a highly mannered actress, ranges more subtly within the limitations of her manner than previously, and with more secure power. As for Gandolfini, only two things need be said: Welcome to a comic actor of the very first rank, and why didn't somebody think of casting him as Nathan Detroit?"
Village Voice Review - God Of Carnage