Seasoned Director, Mark Graham Brings 'God of Carnage' Alive at the Darien Arts Center

Mark Graham, director of over 100 plays and musicals, is enjoying his directorial debut with Darien Arts Center Stage at the helm of Yasmina Reza’s ‘God of Carnage’, winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play.

This ‘comedy of manners without the manners’ is being performed at the Darien Arts Center, darienarts.org, for a 3-weekend run through November 22, and includes a talkback with Graham after the November 15th performance.

Geary Danihy, reviewer for Connecticut Critics Circle had this to say about the production, “it falls to the actors, and the director, to ensure that what the audience sees on the stage are flesh and blood humans rather than cardboard cutouts. This task the four actors in the DAC production accomplish, by and large, with skill…Graham soon has his actors using the full (limited) stage area, wisely rearranging the two couples as alliances form and dissolve and allegiances are challenged – it’s a visual enhancement of the ebb and flow of the couples’ changing relationships and the power shifts that occur during the one-act play.” The rest of Danihy’s review can be read at ctcritics.org.

The play unfolds, when two couples meet in one couple’s upscale Brooklyn apartment to discuss a fight between their 11-year old-sons, a conflict leaving one boy with two broken teeth.

Their attempt to reach closure with the incident soon devolves into chaos. Christopher Isherwood of The New York Times wrote, “The bell rings. Pleasant chatter begins. Coffee and pastry are served. But the gentility soon gives way to the hurling of insults ... physical assault, wanton destruction of a cellphone, rampaging battery by tulips and other assorted forms of bad behavior.”

In the DAC Stage production, Gary Betsworth, Larry Reina, and Norwalk residents Jessie Gilbert and Eileen Lawless expertly play the shifting alliances among the couples under the experienced direction of Graham.

Graham feels that “God of Carnage is an ‘of the moment play’... a comedy that addresses real contemporary issues that challenge the audience. It is a play I have really wanted to direct, and we have an extraordinary cast that is having great fun with the script and characters.”

A Stratford resident, Graham has an MFA in directing from the University of Connecticut and has many years under his belt in the world of theatre. He has served on the boards of the Westport Country Playhouse and Playhouse on the Green, and additionally is a former president and board member of The Theatre Artists Workshop.

For ten years, Graham was a producing partner of the late Tony Award winning producer Lester Osterman. He was general manager of Lucille Lortel’s White Barn Theater in Westport, CT and is one of the founding members of the Downtown Cabaret Theater in Bridgeport.

Graham’s production of Elizabeth Fuller’s Me and Jezebel is currently running Off-Broadway at The Snapple Theater in NYC. He produced and directed Me and Jezebel in its original New York production and across the country.

He is also currently developing a trilogy of plays about the life of William Shakespeare, by Rowayton playwright Mary Jane Schaefer. The first play, Hamlet’s Shakespeare, was presented this summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival after a reading at the National Arts Club in NYC. The second play in the trilogy Judith Shakespeare Has Her Say… will be read at the National arts Club in December.

God of Carnage, directed by Graham and translated by Christopher Hampton, is being performed at the DAC Weatherstone Studio, located at 2 Renshaw Road, behind Darien Town Hall. Performances are at 8 pm on November 14, 15, 21 and 22 with a matinee at 2 pm on November 16. There will be a talkback with Mark Graham, the director, following the November 15th performance and a discussion with Maud Purcell, local psychotherapist, and the cast following the November 21st performance.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at darienarts.org or by calling the box office at 203-655-5414.

Founded in 1975, the Darien Arts Center (DAC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing visual and performing arts programs and events for the community. The DAC offers educational programs in Dance, Visual Arts, Music & Theatre, & special events & live theatre performances by DAC Stage. Private donations, grants, tuition fees & ticket sales fund the DAC, which is located at 2 Renshaw Road, behind the Town Hall. For further information, call (203) 655-8683 or visit darienarts.org.