Line #62 Theatre/GodOfCarnage


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6	-> ''There's nothing to be gained from getting stuck down some emotional'' cul-de-sac.\
7	- '''Véronique''', on page 2 of the script
8
9	''God of Carnage'' (French: ''Le dieu du carnage'') is a 2006 play by French author Yasmina Reza. Two boys get into a fight, and one of them gets his teeth broken. Their parents meet to discuss the situation and work out a solution peacefully. Things escalate rapidly, and this is where HilarityEnsues.
10
11	It was adapted into a feature film in 2011 by Creator/RomanPolanski, with the title of ''Film/{{Carnage\|2011}}''.
12
13	[[AC:The characters appearing in this play:]]
14	* Véronique Houillé - Hostess of the house where the play is set. She works as a writer and part-time in an art and history library. Renamed Veronica Novak in Christopher Hampton's English translation.
15	* Michel Houillé - Véronique's husband. He is a wholesaler of plumbing goods. Called Michael Novak in the translation.
16	* Annette Reille - Ferdinand's mother and Alain's wife, a wealth manager. Her surname is given in the translation as Raleigh.
17	* Alain Reille - Annette's husband, a lawyer working for a big pharmaceutical company embroidered in a scandal. Called Alan Raleigh in the translation.
18	[[AC:Non-appearing characters:]]
19	* Bruno Houillé and Ferdinand Reille - The two eleven-year-olds whose fight, which left Bruno wounded, is the ''casus belli'' for the events in the play. Called Henry Novak and Benjamin Raleigh in the translation.
20	* Camille Houillé - Véronique and Michel's younger daughter, she's the owner of a hamster [[spoiler: which Michel deliberately lost on the road.]]
21	* Michel's mother - She calls in twice from the land-line phone.
22	* Maurice and Serge - Alan's interlocutors over the phone, a spokesperson for the pharmaceutical company and his assistant respectively.
23	----
24	!!This work contains examples of:
25
26	* AmoralAttorney: Alain, as quickly becomes clear from his many phone conversations.
27	* BlackComedy: Four grown-ups who utterly fail in even maintaining a façade of civility, all while proclaiming it's the worst day of their lives? SugarWiki/FunnyMoments.
28	* ComedicSociopathy: The once-civil conversation between the Reilles and the Houillés quickly goes downhill because of everyone's sense of entitlement. And this is what makes the play so compelling.
29	* TheComicallySerious: Alain attempts to remain calm throughout all the absurdity.
30	* ContrivedCoincidence: [[spoiler:Michel's mother]] happens to be taking the same exact pills whose possibly harmful side effects Alain, a lawyer to the pharmaceutical company that produces them, is discussing over the phone.
31	* CuttingTheElectronicLeash: [[spoiler: Annette]] throws Alain's mobile into a vase full of water after growing weary of his constant phone conversations.
32	* DeadpanSnarker: All four principle characters are snarkers to a degree, but Alain has the deadpan side down.
33	* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Sort of. Véronique eventually gets fed up and starts pounding Michel's back, but it isn't taken too seriously. However, it should be noted that the lack of reaction to it seemed to have less to do with gender, and more with the fact that he was being ''really'' annoying, and he doesn't seem to be in any pain from it.
34	* EmbarrassingNickname: Toutou; Darjeeling.
35	* EnemyMine: One of the main points of the play is the constantly shifting alliances between the four, even though none of them really like each other that much.
36	* EveryoneHasStandards
37	** Annette is married to an amoral attorney who will calmly discuss severe problems happening to humans over the phone, yet she is absolutely disgusted to find out that [[spoiler: Michel abandoned his hamster on the street.]]
38	** Despite not wanting them to come over, once he has been forced to accept that he can't avoid it, Michel goes out of his way to make them feel welcome because "Guests are guests".
39	* FreakOut:
40	** The most spectacular one has got to be Alain after [[spoiler: his wife kills his all-important phone.]]
41	** Annette's reaction to [[spoiler: Véronique throwing her handbag across the room]] is pretty extreme. She ends up [[spoiler: bitch-slapping the tulips.]]
42	* HappilyMarried: It quickly becomes clear that Annette and Alain are rather an aversion. Véronique and Michel, on the other hand, seem to be a straight example of this trope... until it gets subverted so massively that their family looks even more dysfunctional than that of the Reilles.
43	* {{Hypocrite}}: All of them on some matter or other.
44	* HypocriticalHumor: Lots, but [[spoiler:Annette's distraught FreakOut to having her handbag thrown across the room even after destroying her husband's cell phone while mocking ''his'' Freak Out about it stands out.]]
45	* InVinoVeritas: Once the characters start to get drunk, the sorry state of their relationships is quickly revealed.
46	* {{Jerkass}}: Alain is quite transparently this right from the start, but all four of them reveal varying levels of this when certain buttons get pushed.
47	* KickTheDog:
48	** Michel starts off seeming quite nice, but even before this persona has really cracked, he reveals that he [[spoiler: abandoned his hamster on the street]].
49	** Much of the reason why the situation deteriorates so much is because none of them can resist making snide, petty remarks on various matters that will inevitably cause offense.
50	* LadyDrunk: Two of them, eventually. The two men also drink, but not as heavily.
51	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Annette]] mocks Alain for being so distraught after [[spoiler:she]] has killed his mobile phone. Not long after, a similar incident leaves [[spoiler: Annette]] equally distraught.
52	* {{Minimalism}}: Four characters, one setting, RealTime. The beginning stage directions even call for it:
53	--> ''No realism.''\
54	''Nothing superfluous.''
55	* MinimalistCast: Only four actors.
56	* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Annette goes on full FreakOut mode after Véronique yells at her to go out and throws her handbag across the room, then the phone rings. It's the Houillés' younger daughter, Camille, and the characters are left contemplating the fate of the hamster.]]
57	* OnlySaneMan: Michel and Annette seem to fill this role in the first half of the play. Both are soon revealed to be more than they seem.
58	* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Oh, so much. At least until the "passive" goes completely out the window.
59	* PredatoryBigPharma: Alan is an AmoralAttorney who believes that there's no such thing as altruistic behavior and works for a pharmaceutical company. Over the night, he's working on an apparent scandal related to a medication with fatal side effects, which Michel's mother is taking.
60	* RealTime: The play is one continuous scene, taking place in real time.
61	* SacredHospitality: Mild version. Michel did not want Alain and Annette to come over, but nonetheless made a real effort to make them welcome, and lasts for quite a long time before losing it.
62	* ShoutOut: The Reilles' nickname for each other, "Toutou", is taken from "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUP_fex2RaA Via con me]]", an Italian song by Paolo Conte[[note]]The song gets alluded to but not title-dropped. And, by the way, it's just {{Scatting}} on Conte's part[[/note]].
63	** In the English translation, the nickname becomes "Woof-woof", this time a reference to the novelty song "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" by Patti Paige.
64	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The conflict in the play comes largely from the four characters having different positions on this scale, with Alain being the most cynical and Véronique the most idealistic. Neither the idealistic nor the cynical viewpoint is shown to be the right one; rather, the script ridicules both sides of the argument.
65	* StepfordSmiler: Everyone.
66	* TheStoic: Alain in general remains straight-faced throughout most of the conversation. ...[[NotSoStoic Until of course]], [[spoiler:his cell phone is destroyed.]]
67	* StrawmanPolitical: Sort of: usually with this trope, a political view is oversimplified for the sole purpose of discrediting it, and thus making the alternative more credible. All four of them have opposing views that are shown to be severely flawed in some way (and thus might be considered discredited), but since none of them are ultimately suggested to be right, the usual purpose behind a StrawmanPolitical is averted.
68	* StrawMisogynist: Both Alain and Michel have some very sexist views, that clearly paint them in an even more negative light. It should be noted that the women are not presented as being much better, so it's more a case of everyone being wrong.
69	* StrawNihilist: Alain is an unashamed nihilist.
70	** [[spoiler: Once he gets drunk, Michel]] gives Véronique a lecture on the hypocrisy of her liberal sensibilities.
71	* TemptingFate: See the page quote.
72	* TitleDrop: Alain references by name the eponymous God of Carnage when discussing his open nihilism.
73	* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The main story is intervowen with the scandal surrounding the pharmaceutical company which involves [[spoiler: Michel's mother]] as well, mainly told through Alain's (one-sided) phone calls.
74	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: All four, to a greater or lesser degree.
75	* VomitIndiscretionShot: [[spoiler: Annette throwing up over the coffee table]] serves as a major turning point in the play.
76	* VillainousBSOD: Happens to Alain immediately after [[spoiler: his wife disposes of his phone.]]
77	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Michel apparently has a crippling fear of rodents.

Context Theatre / GodOfCarnage