{"id":149802,"date":"2026-02-10T05:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T05:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/149802\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T05:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T05:34:06","slug":"the-gloves-are-off-with-tampa-reps-god-of-carnage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/149802\/","title":{"rendered":"The gloves are off with Tampa Rep\u2019s \u2018God of Carnage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Discomfort was never so entertaining.<\/p>\n<p>Voyeurism takes on a whole new meaning with the Tampa Repertory Theatre production of God of Carnage, by French playwright Yasmina Reza, onstage through Sunday in the Hillsborough College Ybor City campus theater.<\/p>\n<p>The play consists of one long, frequently interrupted conversation between two married couples, Veronica and Michael Novak (Georgia Mallory Guy and Andrew Deeb) and Alan and Annette Raleigh (Christopher Marshall and Courtney Elvira).<\/p>\n<p>The Raleighs have agreed to visit the Novaks\u2019 home to discuss a recent schoolyard dustup involving their 11-year-old sons. The couples, who have not previously met, want to talk things out, calmly and rationally, over expressos and light hors d\u2019oeuvres.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not exactly what happens. Insinuations and sarcasm turn to browbeating and insults; everyone\u2019s chain is pulled, and just when it looks as if things have simmered down, somebody else lunges back in.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112209\" class=\"wp-image-112209\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Novaks-Tampa-Rep-God-of-Carnage-218x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"551\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-112209\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Novaks (Deeb and Guy).<\/p>\n<p>God of Carnage, which won the Tony for Best Play in 2009, is a brutal drama with moments of great, escape-valve-level hilarity.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, it can be viewed as a very dark comedy laced with pointed truths about the savage that exists within us all, regardless of the civility we display on the outside.<\/p>\n<p>Not since the Off-Central\u2019s January production of Gruesome Playground Injuries has vomit played such a pivotal role in a play.<\/p>\n<p>Tampa Rep director Alexis Carra Girbe\u0301s has staged this production in the round, so that every audience member is literally up close and personal with Veronica, Annette, Michael and Allen and their three-dimensional trainwreck of an encounter.<\/p>\n<p>This was done for a very specific reason. \u201cIt\u2019s in the round,\u201d she explained, \u201cbecause I wanted the audience to feel uncomfortable in a way that they\u2019re watching something unfold that they\u2019re a little bit embarrassed or shocked to see, but they can\u2019t turn away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Originally, said Girbe\u0301s, she and Tampa Rep artistic director Emilia Sargent envisioned their God of Carnage as a literal boxing match. \u201cWe thought about it being in the round in that way. When you\u2019re watching a boxing match, you\u2019re on all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112210\" class=\"wp-image-112210\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Tampa-Rep-Raleighs-God-of-Carnage-228x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"527\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-112210\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Raleighs (Elvira and Marshall).<\/p>\n<p>At one point, they even considered putting ropes around the set, like a pugilistic ring, with a bell denoting each new round of \u201ccombat.\u201d They wisely decided that would be a little obvious, if not kind of unnecessary. Even kitschy.<\/p>\n<p>Tampa Rep does not have its own regular performance space, so the four actors and their director rehearsed in a small room inside Tampa\u2019s vintage Kress Building, where many of the city\u2019s arts organizations work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then when we got into the actual space, it changed again,\u201d Girbe\u0301s recalled. \u201cThe larger space allowed us to expand the power dynamic of who\u2019s trying to win in this moment, who\u2019s backing down, who\u2019s on who\u2019s side \u2026 and in some ways I was actually able to see it clearer. In rehearsal, I\u2019d been basically sitting on the set with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Veronica can be shrewish and brittle, Michael a primitive schlub, Alan a self-obsessed twit and Annette mousy and flighty, they each make rational observations \u2013 every once in a while \u2013 about human nature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe point is, no one wins,\u201d Girbe\u0301s said. \u201cEveryone has moments where what they\u2019re saying feels, to the audience, totally right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tamparep.org\/godofcarnage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Click this link<\/a> for showtimes, tickets and other pertinent information.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-112211 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/God-of-Carnage-6-Tampa-Rep-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"494\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-112212 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/God-of-Carnage-Tampa-Rep-5-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"494\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discomfort was never so entertaining. Voyeurism takes on a whole new meaning with the Tampa Repertory Theatre production&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-149802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}