The Department of Theatre continues its 2022-23 season with God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza and directed by M.F.A. directing candidate Huan Bui. The production opens Friday, Nov. 11, at the University Theatre. Tickets are available online at uarkartstickets.com.

About the play

Winner of the 2009 Tony Award, the play is brutal comedy of manners without the manners, as two high-strung couples try to delicately discuss a playground altercation between their children. The conversation begins civilly, but as the rum flows, what starts out politely and politically correct becomes pugilistic and anything but correct. 

About the production

The production is directed by M.F.A. candidate Huan Bui in partial fulfillment of his thesis. Bui's previous U of A directing credits were all dramas and is enjoying working on a comedy — albeit a dark one. In his research for the production Bui discovered the playwright Reza, calls her work "funny tragedies" and he has enjoyed working in this mode, saying, "For God of Carnage, there's a bunch of things to contemplate after laughing, because we may realize that laughing at what happens in the story is also laughing at ourselves."

The nearly 90-minute play features a mix of graduate and undergraduate actors from the Department of Theatre.  Senior theatre major Alex Horn, who plays Michael, has also enjoyed working on the dark comedy. "We see these four humans go from civil, collected adults to the darkest of savagery. It's quick. It's uncomfortable. But still insanely hilarious and full of so much energy and life," says Horn.

Bui believes, ultimately, the battle between the couples takes on larger resonance, saying,  "this play is not different from what is taking place out there with two organizations, two communities, two parties, or two countries. This battle — the fight between civilization and savagery — is the God of Carnage."

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, directed by Huan Bui runs through Nov. 19 at the University Theatre. Ticket reservations can be made online at uark.universitytickets.com.