Playground smackdown

Harry Fane (8, in blue) and Joss Elliott (8, front, with cap), with God of Carnage cast Dave Fane, Peter Elliott, Miranda Harcourt and Hera Dunleavy and their children at the Gladstone Rd Playground, Parnel. Photo / Greg Bowker

When Dave Fane saw his son being bullied, his first instinct was to step in. "But then I took him aside and told him how to deal with the situation," says the actor, who plays a "bullshit artist" businessman in Auckland Theatre Company's new comedy, God of Carnage by French playwright Yasmina Reza.

"I told him the bully always has the power if you accept it. You've just got to give it back to 'em!"

The plan backfired when Mum poo-pooed the idea and suggested talking it out instead. But it goes to show that playground conflict is an all-too-familiar subject for most families.

Since ATC started rehearsing the play, all of the cast members, who are parents themselves, have come to rehearsal with their kids' tales of playground scraps, like the time director Colin McColl's daughter got into trouble for attacking other kids at kindy.

"It's just like it is in the play. Kids have this killer instinct. But the play is really about how adults project who they are on to their children. It's about raising children to have the same characteristics. To have actors without kids - I think they'd have a hard time identifying with these characters."

And it's an impressive cast of parents, including Miranda Harcourt, Peter Elliott and Hera Dunleavy. McColl had to convince Harcourt to come up to Auckland from Wellington for the play, leaving her three kids behind.

A comedy of manners, without the manners, God of Carnage tells the story of a playground scuffle and how two educated middle-class couples come together to try to resolve the problem. What starts out as a polite meeting soon turns into an all-out verbal and physical brawl that would put their kids to shame.

"The arguments are childlike but they have the venom of an adult at full fury," says Fane. "In the end it's carnage, blood-letting, and the end comes out of the blue. It's genius stuff."

ATC regular Fane (who has previously starred in Niu Sila and Where We Once Belonged) plays opposite Harcourt, last seen onstage with ATC in Skylight. She plays his wife, Veronique Vallon, a writer and art historian working on a book about the conflict in Darfur.

ATC stalwarts Peter Elliott and Hera Dunleavy play the high-powered and legally minded parents of Ferdinand, who stands accused of knocking fellow classmate Bruno's front teeth out after he's blocked from joining a playground gang.

"We're not deliberately playing up the laughs," says McColl. "It's more of an existential comedy, very intelligent, very French, stylish."

Both McColl and Fane were surprised to find the preview audiences laughing in different places.

"Yes, it's almost as though the audience is the missing link," says McColl. "Everyone seems to recognise a different part of the play."

God of Carnage was a sell-out success on Broadway, starring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden and The Sopranos' James Gandolfini in a slightly Americanised version. It won a Tony award for Best Play, and an Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

The ATC's version is more in keeping with the original.

Although there won't be French accents - "I think three out of four of us could do good French accents but there's probably one who couldn't", quips Fane - he is playing the role as a Tahitian to explain his Samoan skin colour.

"I was chatting to some Pacific Islanders recently who said, 'I'm going to come and see it' and I thought, 'You poor fullas, why? It's happening in your own house!"'

You could say Fane is the god of carnage. Each morning he gets up at 4am for his Flava FM radio show before he fits in rehearsals and hits the hay around 11pm, fitting in a short lie-down on a mattress on the floor just before this interview.

"I always figure I can sleep when I'm dead," he says. However, the intensity of this play demands all his stamina. "The other day in rehearsal I lasted half the play and I was exhausted, and that was before we'd even got to the really intense stuff. An hour and 10 minutes followed by a well deserved beer."

One of New Zealand's most recognised actors, with high-profile roles as Falani in Outrageous Fortune, Jonah in Diplomatic Immunity and one of the Naked Samoans behind bro'Town which became so popular before it wrapped for the last time this year "we could sell laundry powder now!"

Fane is also in the writing stages of a new sitcom, In the Beginning, with fellow Naked Samoan Oscar Kightley, plus Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement and the multi-talented Taika Waititi.

He first worked with McColl when he taught him at drama school.

"I just try to enjoy it, take it as it comes then get out and let someone else have the fun. I'm very happy I was invited to be in this play. It's like being in a masterclass with these actors. Every time we're on stage together I learn something."

McColl is just as busy. After God of Carnage he starts work on Bruce Mason's The Pohutukawa Tree with Rena Owen, then takes NBR NZ Opera's production of The Italian Girl in Algiers to Scotland with the Scottish Opera.

PERFORMANCE
What: God of Carnage

Where and when: Maidment Theatre, July 23-August 15