God of Carnage at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

God of Carnage appealed to me for various reasons; it has won a few awards, it was translated by Christopher Hampton and the cast included Freema Agyeman of Doctor Who/Torchwood fame.

It was also described as "darkly funny" which is most definitely my sort of thing.

All that was enough to get me to fork out £34 for Circle A23, my usual area.

I made time for a little local walking, which included a look at The Aircraft Factory, before heading to my recently adopted pre-theatre eating place of choice La Petite Bretagne where I went for the goats cheese crepe. It is a good place and meets all my needs but it is still a shame that Lyric does not do full meals any more.

It was also a shame that this performance had no interval as that meant no ice cream. I would like to give Lyric more money but they made it hard for me to do so this evening.

The set was an immediate plus. I liked the elegance and the simplicity of it. Much later I realised that it was rotating slowly though why it was doing so remained a mystery to me.

The fairly simple premise of the play was the meeting of two couples after their sons were involved in a violent incident at school. In the attempt to resolve the situation things obviously did not go to plan.

The discussions got complicated and changed direction many times, being deflected by things like repeated phone calls, a (probably) dead hamster and a (possibly) dangerous drug.

None of these sub-plots grew into anything significant and the play remained at a fairly constant level. It was constantly humorous without developing in to, or descending in to, a farce. That humour came from the interactions between the four different people and was reinforced wonderfully by the acting which was rich with knowing gestures and looks.

Leading the pack was Freema Agyeman as the wronged mother in a rather lovely outfit by, possibly, Christian Dior (I am not an expert on fashion logos!), and she led it masterfully.

I liked God of Carnage even though it did not do very much or go anywhere surprising. For an hour and a half we watched four people struggle to cope with the situation that they found themselves in and with each other. Things were said and looks were given that many of us could relate to and which made us chuckle in shared embarrassment.