Attic Salt
Theatre Company, the team who produced 2013’s comedy hit All in the Timing, is pleased to
announce their upcoming production of the WNC debut of the cynical comedy God
of Carnage, at Asheville Community Theatre’s black box
theater, 35below. The space is located
in the back of the building at 35 East Walnut St. in Downtown Asheville. Performances
will run from November 7th through the 23rd, with Friday and
Saturday shows at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2:30pm.
Attic Salt Theatre Company is a company that formed in New York City in 1998
and has since concentrated on children’s theatre and art residencies in NYC
schools. With the arrival in Asheville four years ago of the two principal
officers of the company, Jeff Catanese, Artistic Director, and Marci Bernstein,
Executive Director/Education Coordinator, the company has been continuing its
work to those ends in Western North Carolina. God of Carnage will
be their third local foray into producing theater for adult
audiences, after the triumphs of 2013’s All
in the Timing by David Ives, and last April’s Women and Wallace by Jonathan Marc Sherman.
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God of Carnage won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2009 and was
Yasmina Reza’s follow-up to her equally-lauded Art. Starting out as an actress, Ms. Reza established herself as a
great playwright in France in 1987 with Conversations
after a Burial, which went on to win Best
Play at the Moliere Awards, the French equivalent of the Tonys. Since then,
each play she has written has been greatly anticipated by European audiences,
with her American breakthrough coming in 1996, with the Broadway production of Art. The translation of God of Carnage into English was done by
Oscar-winning screenwriter and playwright Christopher Hampton.
The plot of God
of Carnage involves the Brooklyn parents of two eleven-year-old boys, who
come together one evening to maturely
resolve an altercation between the lads. The evening deteriorates, however,
when the rum flows, tensions emerge, and we find out that these adults are no
more mature than their own children. It’s a pessimistic dive into a pool of (a
lack of) self-discovery, asking the questions of “Do we ever really get past
our petty nature?” “Do we ever ‘grow up?” and “Why the hell would you free a
hamster into a Brooklyn street???”
Producer Marci Bernstein says, “The real joy of this
play is in watching the entire night, and each of the characters, devolve into
an all-too-recognizable madness. One looks with an outside eye and laughs, but
then has to ask when they may have seen themselves in similar situations.”
“The script and the actors let the funny come
through in a big way,” says director Jeff Catanese. “But to have that happen
within this significant a context, well… We hope it will get people talking
after they laugh.”
The cast is made up of local favorites Chelsey Lee Gaddy and Dan
Clancy, and also features newcomers to the Asheville stage Christy Montesdeoca and
Mike Yow. The play will be directed by
Jeff Catanese,
who helmed Attic Salt Theatre Company’s All
in the Timing and Women and Wallace, as
well as last season’s smash hit, Spamalot
at Asheville Community Theatre.
Jeff is a successful director, writer and actor and
has directed several plays in New York and regionally. As an actor he has
performed in over fifty theatrical productions and he is co-author of three
drama/education books published by Scholastic. Recent plays Jeff has directed
here in Asheville are the acclaimed production of Spamalot at Asheville Community Theater, Romeo & Juliet at the Asheville Masonic Temple, 'Night, Mother in ACT’s 35below and
Attic Salt Theatre Company’s All in the
Timing.
Tickets are available through the Asheville
Community Theatre box office. Please call at 828-254-1320, or reach them online at
AshevilleTheatre.org.
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