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 night becomes a side-splitting free-for-all, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.

The Amazing Things production features Concord’s Lida McGirr and Bedford’s Webb Tilney as Annette and Alan Raleigh.  Lida says, “It's one of those ‘Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride’ shows – and I mean that in the best possible way!”  Webb believes that audiences will enjoy the spiraling nature of the plot and appreciate the play’s “humor, drama, and most of all, the exposure of truth.” 

The production also features Lis Adams of Arlington (the Director of Education at Concord’s Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House) and Cliff Blake of Lexington as Veronica and Michael Novak. 

Lida has performed in or directed many other area productions, including the award-winning A Piece of My Heart, nominated for four Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theater (EMACT) DASH awards. She won an EMACT DASH Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and that was also one of her favorite roles: “It's wonderful being able to behave badly and not suffer any consequences ... kind of like in God of Carnage!” At Amazing Things, Lida has appeared in Same Time Next Year (Doris), The Glass Menagerie (Amanda), and Shirley Valentine (Shirley); directed Beyond Therapy; and conceived, directed, and appeared in Dorothy Parker Revived. 

Webb has been acting for 12 years.  George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life is his most iconic role.  He also enjoyed Walker/Ned in Three Days of Rain because he got to play two characters and could identify with both.  E. K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind and his current role are fun, he says, “since I get to explore a part of my personality that I don't often get to show.” Webb, a software localization engineer for a major producer of access control and video systems, met his wife in theater, and their seven-year-old daughter “absolutely has the drama gene.”  They have a family of eight groundhogs in their backyard.

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, go to www.amazingthings.org or call 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