Echo Theatre's God of Carnage strips away people's polite facades

And in this iteration, this very French play is also a comedy set in Canberra, thanks to Best's decision to reset it in the capital.

Christopher Hampton's translation of the Yasmina Reza play "about what happens when you get rid of the filter" will be at The Q this month thanks to Echo Theatre.

It follows Annette (played by Lainie Hart) and Alan (Jim Adamik), who visit the home of Veronica (Carolyn Eccles) and Michael (Josh Wiseman), to discuss an incident between their 11-year-old sons.

These are affluent Canberran who seem respectable and well-intended. Until they're not.

"The parents have never met before," Best said.

"It all starts off very polite, very accommodating."

But it doesn't take long before the polite facade is ripped away and the meeting descends into arguments, criticisms, tantrums and savagery - not just between the couples, but between the spouses. All sorts of rivalries, resentments and recriminations surface to the point where the original reason for the meeting is all but forgotten. There's even projectile vomiting.

"It is a French farce - the characters are over the top, larger than life - it's absolutely a sitcom."

But, Best said, despite the extremes, the characters are relatable, too.

Eccles said Veronica, "is the kind of woman who won't let anything go". She is high-minded and believes in right and wrong.

Her son has been injured and she wants blood, metaphorically speaking. She is insistent that the other boy must apologise for what he did and he has to mean it.

But how can the requisite level of sincerity be determined?

Michael, Eccles said, "very much allows himself to be second-in-command in the relationship of the two".

But, she said, Veronica has a tendency to push people too far, and even Michael has a breaking point.

Le Dieu du Carnage (2006) was first produced in English translation in the West End in 2008 where it won the Olivier Award for best comedy and on Broadway the following year, where it won Tony Awards for best play, director and actress.

Director Roman Polanski's film adaptation, titled Carnage - which he wrote with Reza - was released in 2011. It starred Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet and John C. Reilly.

Reza's earlier play Art (1998) was also an award-winning success, with a production held at The Street earlier this year.

Eccles said the characters in God of Carnage "do a dance between 2D and 3D" - sometimes they're portrayed realistically, and at other times they're reduced to types.

The audience is able to view them and their antics from a distance, Eccles said - but then they have to go home and think about their own life choices and how they might behave in such a situation.