Yasmina Reza - Tony Award for Best Play
Playwright Wins First Tony in 1998, Second in 2009
© JD Eames
Aug 12, 2009
French playwright Yasmina Reza accepted the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play for her work, God of Carnage, suggesting Tony Award voters, "missed my accent." Two previous Reza plays have been produced on Broadway, Life x 3, and the 1998 Tony Award winning play, Art. About the Tony Award for God of Carnage, Reza graciously exclaimed, "I share this award with my dearest Christopher and Matthew," referring to her frequent collaborators, Christopher Hampton and Matthew Warchus.
God of Carnage Tony Awards and Nominations
God of Carnage was nominated for six Tony Awards, Best Play, Best Direction of a play, and two each in the categories of Leading Actor and Leading Actress. All four actors in the Broadway cast were nominated. The cast included Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini, and Marcia Gay Harden. Harden won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress.
God of Carnage confronts two couples meeting to discuss a fight between their children. Reza's plays are known for providing actors with meaty roles, a quality perhaps influenced by her own theatrical beginnings as an actor.
From Acting and Playwriting to Books and Film
Yasmina Reza studied drama first in Paris at University X and then at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. She worked as an actor for several years before turning to playwriting.
She acted a short time until, according to the Los Angeles Times 1999 interview, she could no longer bear "to wait by the phone for the next part." In 1987 she wrote her first play Conversations After a Burial that won her a Moliere Award, the national theatre award in France, in the category of Best Author.
Reza also has written two novels, and in her biography about Nicholas Sarkozy, Dawn, Evening or Night, was published in 2007. Sarkozy, the President of France, invited Reza to observe him and his campaign for eight months. In 2009 Reza began directing her film Chicas from her own screenplay. In a New York Times article ("High School Reunion," 4/3/20007) Caryn James wrote Yasmina Reza is "a born satirist, a gifted and wry observer of the absurdities and feints of social life."
Controversy Over Play Translations
Reza's work has sparked some controversy with some proclaiming her plays only come alive via their translators. Christopher Hampton, a frequently translator of her plays, however, has defended her saying in a January 2007 article in American Theatre, "I think she has an absolutely recognizable and distinctive voice. It's almost as distinctive as Harold Pinter. It couldn't be anybody else."
Artistic Collaborators Director Matthew Warchus and Playwright Christoper Hampton
Matthew Warchus received a Tony Award for his direction God of Carnage. Matthew Warchus has directed several of Reza's plays, most notably her 1998 Tony winning play, Art. Warchus competed against himself for Best Direction of a Play when alongside God of Carnage he was nominated as best director for The Norman Conquests.
British playwright Christopher Hampton has translated four of Reza's plays from the original French into English, including Life x 3 and Art. Hampton won the 1995 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Sunset Boulevard. A prolific screenwriter, Hampton wrote the film adaptation of his play, Dangerous Liaisons.
The 2009 Tony Awards were held on June 6, 2009 at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Actor Neil Patrick Harris hosted the CBS television network broadcast of the award show.
Sources:
- New York Times
- Los Angeles Times
- The Guardian UK
- The London Times
- The London Independent
- Internet Movie Database
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