We all need to laugh, so head to Framingham’s Amazing Things Arts Center for the hilarious God of Carnage, by Yazmina Reza (translated by Christopher Hampton), July 13-22.  Affordable tickets, free parking, and laughter therapy! 

This fast-paced comedy, which won the Tony and Olivier Awards in 2009 for best play, is a comedy of manners ...without the manners.  After a playground fight between two eleven-year-old boys, the boys' parents meet to sort out the fight in a civilized manner. As the rum flows, the gloves come off and the night becomes a side-splitting free-for-all, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.

The show features Arlington’s Lis Adams as Veronica Novak.  Lis finds God of Carnage a particularly challenging play because of its being translated from the original French.  She says the theme, however, is universal: “parents who revert to their worst behaviors when their attempt to deal with their children's conflict breaks down into a petty battle for superiority.”  She thinks audiences will “recognize themselves in both the veneer of civility and the emergence of the uncouth savage, and appreciate the comedy of the characters' vain attempts to keep the savage at bay.”

Lis has been involved with many area theater groups, including Arlington Friends of the Drama, where she is currently vice president on the Board of Directors; Vokes Players (Wayland), Concord Players, Quannapowitt Players (Reading), and others.  Most recently she performed for Playwrights' Platform Festival at Boston Playwrights Theater.  A few of her favorite roles include Eleanore of Aquitaine in Lion in Winter (Concord Players); Grace in Bus Stop (Vokes and Amazing Things); Princess in Sweet Bird of Youth (Delvena Theater at Boston Center for the Arts); and Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Sissy in A Piece of My Heart (at Arlington Friends of the Drama).

Lis has a Theatre Arts degree from Brandeis University and completed graduate work in Museum Studies at Tufts.  Daytimes she is Director of Education at Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in Concord.

The Framingham production also features Cliff Blake as Michael Novak, Lida McGirr as Annette Raleigh, and Webb Tilney as Alan Raleigh.

WHAT: GOD OF CARNAGE – comedy

WHEN: July 13, 14, 20, & 21 at 8PM; July 15 & 22 at 2PM

WHERE: Amazing Things Arts Center, 160 Hollis St. /Rt. 126, Framingham

The show is recommended for mature audiences.  Tickets are $18 ($17 for students & seniors, $15 for members).  For tickets and directions: www.amazingthings.org or 508-405-ARTS (2787).  Directed by Sandy Clifford; produced by Susan Lanspery. 

Don't just take our word for it.... 

•  “A familiar comic journey from A to B, but it travels first class.’’ - New York Times
• “Elegant, acerbic and entertainingly fueled on pure bile. Reza's sharpest work since ‘Art.’ ” – Variety
• “[Reza] cannily manipulates social observations that appeal to vast audiences and creates characters that bring out the best in actors.” - NY Newsday