Billy Elliot (based on Stephen Daldry’s 2000 film) grabbed a total of 10 Tony Awards yesterday night and while there are less than zero chances in seeing the big winner of the night make it to the big screen, the chances of seeing the winner of Best Play in a film mode in the coming years shouldn’t be that far off. No one made any preemptive bids for the play beforehand, but yesterday’s win could alter (for the better) the chances of seeing God of Carnage onto the big screen. Perhaps with Christopher Hampton attached to translate the piece to script form and possibly direct?
In what would be an economical shoot (since this take place indoors and what I imagine is over the course of one evening), if you have four actors who can work it for the camera, we have the potential for a searing talking heads snack that might be cinematically reduced to long takes a la Altman, or simplified shot reverse shot sequences with the occasional use of steadicam set-ups.
The play that began its life last year in London (names like Ralph Fiennes and Janet McTeer in the lead roles) is about two so-called civilized married couples meet up to sort out a playground fight. The Broadway version sees Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis play the couple whose son is missing two teeth while James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden play the parents of the son who did the dental damage. At first diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses and the rum flows, huge tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving more than just their liberal principles in tatters. As the evening goes on, the meeting degenerates into the four getting into irrational arguments, and their discussion falls into the loaded topics of misogyny, racial prejudice and homophobia.
For those who are interested, the play runs until late July and comes back for the Fall in September. Click here for ticket info.
