Two schoolboys have a fight and their parents try to get to the heart of the matter and resolve the tension.

Alla tal-Qirda, adapted for a Maltese audience without losing any of its originality, delivers the cathartic release of watching other people’s marriages go boom

But there’s little calming down in Yasmina Reza’s Le dieu du carnage (God of Carnage), a wickedly funny satire that explores the caveman – and cavewoman – in each of us.

L-Alla tal-Qirda, a translation into Maltese by Anthony Aquilina, is being staged at St James Cavalier this weekend and next.

The one-act play is funny because spectators get to know what each character is really thinking under a sincere, or false-sincere, passive cover.

This is how critics of the original French play greeted Le dieu du carnage when it was shown in its stage and cinematic version in English.

Reza, as author and a playwright, is, first and foremost, an actor. Her plays have been described as acting showcases, displaying a real understanding of the relationship between actor and script.

This is how Don Leavitt defines the French playwright who has received worldwide recognition. With an ear for what works on stage, her dialogue is often sharp.

She knows what actors can do with their roles. As a result, Reza’s plays resonate with actors including some of the biggest names on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Audience interest in her works has helped to make Reza one of the most important figures in late-20th century theatre.

Besides the prestige and the honour of joining so many other countries in enjoying this play in their native language, L-Alla tal-Qirda brings to Maltese audiences the latest overtures of modern theatre in its full bloom.

In the able hands of director Lino Farrugia, whose brilliant career includes the staging of authors such as Eduardo de Filippo, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Ayckbourn, Lorca, Ebejer and others, the Maltese cast will feature four formidable actors whose recent performances have lifted them into a deserved acclaim of successful characters with social themes.

Before the play begins, two 11-year-old children, Ferdinand and Bruno, get involved in an argument and Ferdinand knocks out two of Bruno’s teeth with a stick.

That night, the parents of both children meet to discuss the matter.

Ferdinand’s father, Alan (Jes Camilleri), is a lawyer who is always on his mobile phone while his wife, Annette (Charlotte Grech), is her husband’s wealthy showcase.

Bruno’s father, Michael (Chris Spiteri), is a self-made wholesaler with a sick mother. His wife, Veronica (Shirley Blake), is writing a book.

As the evening progresses, the rendez-vous degenerates into the four getting into irrational arguments, and their discussion falls into the loaded topics of mistrust of women, racial prejudice and homophobia.

The play reaches dramatic moments when Annette suddenly loses her composure and commits what everybody else tries hard to avoid in public.

Audiences laugh but Reza maintains that her plays are not exactly comedies. They are funny tragedies, she retorts.

L-Alla tal-Qirda, adapted for a Maltese audience without losing any of its originality, delivers the cathartic release of watching other people’s marriages go boom; a study in the tension between civilised surface and savage instinct.

The play, a satisfyingly primitive entertainment with an intellectual veneer, won the Olivier Award in London for best new comedy. It is subtle in its shifting ballet of emotions and loyalties among the irritable quartet.

As alcohol replaces coffee and outer garments are removed, sides of combat blur. The men gang up on the women, the women gang up on the men, and the husbands and wives wind up, briefly, changing partners.

• L-Alla tal-Qirda is being staged at St James Cavalier on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and on November 9-11 at 8pm. (Saturday’s performance starts at 7.30pm). Tickets may be obtained on 2122 3200, e-mail: info@sjcav.org or www.sjcav.org.

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