French playwright Yasmina Reza's special talent lies in exposing our coarse and, ironically, often poetic inner lives. In the Northern California regional premiere of her 2009 Tony Award-winning comedy-drama "God of Carnage" at B Street Theatre, Reza flays open two well-heeled and purposefully modern upper-middle-class couples.

Though Reza's theme isn't strikingly original – the fragile underpinnings of "polite" society are constantly under scrutiny – her work never takes an obvious approach. As a former actor, Reza also writes big, meaty parts, and "God of Carnage" perfectly suits the expert B Street ensemble inhabiting the characters.

The play begins as Alan and Annette (Kurt Johnson and Elisabeth Nunziato) have come to the home of Michael and Veronica (David Pierini and Dana Brooke) to discuss a violent incident between their sons. The couples are congenial and conciliatory at first. The situation will erode both comically and dramatically, however, and the couples find themselves at a very different place by the end of the play than where they started.

Unlike a writer such as Neil LaBute, who takes similarly obvious situations and manipulates them for base theatrical effects, Reza is significantly more circumspect. She is also more entertaining, while respecting her audience enough to let them ask their own questions and reach their own conclusions.

Reza's previously seen work in Sacramento, the internationally successful comedy "Art," followed a similar path. In that play the relationship between three longtime friends disintegrates after one buys a controversial painting. Just who is in the right or wrong becomes less of an issue than how we equivocate our most honest feelings about those closest to us and whom we want to keep in our lives.

In "God of Carnage," Alan and Annette's son has hit Michael and Veronica's son in the face with a stick. The blow knocked out two teeth. Veronica has written a statement about the incident, conceding that the other couple will likely want to draft their own. Just who the statements are for is unclear, but during the gently pointed negotiations over the language contained in the documents, conflicts naturally arise.

The couples are teams at first, but eventually they fragment and turn on each other. Annette's ethical piety bumps up against corporate attorney Alan's emotionless pragmatism. The two men acknowledge their attendance at the meeting as simply a way to keep peace with their wives. Annette attacks Alan's devotion to his cellphone and a work crisis he's handling during the evening.

Director Buck Busfield and the quartet of actors masterfully adjust to the changing moods and tones of the script. Brooke, Nunziato, Pierini and Johnson are familiar presences whose high levels of talent and craft can be taken for granted, but what they bring to the stage here should not be underestimated.

Playwright Reza's strongest attribute is taking her audience to an unexpected place and dropping them off there after a thoughtful and pleasurable journey.

GOD OF CARNAGE

four stars

What: B Street Theatre presents the Tony Award-winning play by French playwright Yasmina Reza about two modern couples reverting to their baser instincts after their kids get into a playground scuffle. With David Pierini, Dana Brooke, Kurt Johnson and Elisabeth Nunziato.

When: Continues at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 6

Where: B Street Theatre Mainstage, 2711 B St., Sacramento

Tickets: $18-$30, $5 student rush

Time: 90 minutes with no intermission

Information: (916) 443-5300, www.bstreettheatre.org

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Call The Bee's Marcus Crowder, (916) 321-1120.

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