It was Hamlet who said “the play’s the thing”, and Yasmina Reza’s play has won so many awards, it feels almost impossible to say anything critical about it. It’s a light, frothy modern-day farce, which lifts the audience up, before pushing them out into the spring Chicago air.

When Alan (David Pasquesi) and Annette (Beth Lacke)’s son hits Veronica (Mary Beth Fisher) and Michael (Keith Kupferer)’s son with a stick while playing, the two couples meet to discuss the issue. The evening starts well enough, with some clafoutis and coffee, but quickly descends into farce, as people’s social masks begin to slip.

The play is a modern-day comedy of manners, asking questions about parenting, relationships, and the correct way to dispose of a cell-phone that won’t stop ringing. All of the actors put in solid performances, the highlight being Pasquesi as an oleaginous lawyer, looking to bury a story about his pharmaceutical client. His wife, Lacke, is suitably neurotic, given her workaholic husband and apparently feral child.

In most farces, all is at is seems, and Reza’s play doesn’t deviate too far from the norm. The biggest laughs come from the physical comedy, but if were being picky, I’d complain that it’s the play itself that really just doesn’t deliver quite the replete number of laughs per minute. It’s an enjoyable enough 73 minutes, that means everyone’s at home in time for the babysitter.

God of Carnage is playing at Goodman Theatre thru April 17th. For more information visit www.goodmantheatre.org.

They say that pets look like their owners, and maybe fans look like their favorite bands. Based on the audience at Foal’s Lincoln Hall show, the average fan is an identikit of lead singer Yannis Philippakis ; often quite short, overwhelmingly male and wearing a checked shirt. That’s no complaint. I’m a big Lady Gaga fan, so this explains why I am wearing a baloney bra and hat shaped like a pterodactyl as I type this review.

Oxford University drop-outs Foals hadn’t visited Chicago for a while, and the crowd are beside themselves with excitement. From the first chord of opening song “Total Life Forever”, the fans are carried along by the sinuous guitars and tribal rhythms of Foals. Touring their well-received second album “Total Life Forever”, Foals played a mix of old and new, to a rapturous audience.

Foals are all business and after a quick “Hi Chicago, we’re happy to be here” it’s heads down, heads banging, fingers flying. Questions about whether or not they are actually a math rock band fly out of the window as they present their complex punk rock, trancy, tribal beats. This is music to dance to; juddering bass lines (reminiscent of The Cure), filled in with jagged guitars and intricate drumming. The crowd chants along, arms aloft. Yannis crowd surfs and climbs the speakers, like a cool Bono who has come to take your head off with songs like “Two Steps, Twice” and “Olympic Airways.” He once said he wanted “to fucking destroy the music industry from the inside out”. Based on tonight’s performance, I don’t doubt Foals could do it.

The titular city is shorthand for the decline of the American dream these days, and so the audience comes prepared to “Detroit”, the new play by Lisa D’Amour that kicks off Steppenwolf’s 2010/2011 season.

The play opens with an American scene; two back yards, one a Michigan-style brick build, the other a more precarious wooden frame. We meet Ben and Mary, two middle-class suburbanites dealing with a modern reality. Ben (Ian Barford) has just been laid off from his financial services job and Mary (Laurie Metcalf) is coping by drinking a little too much. Into this disharmony step Kenny (Kevin Anderson) and Sharon (Kate Arrington, fresh from her great performance in “A Parallelogram”), two recovering addicts, fresh from a stint in rehab. Or are they?

Steppenwolf’s new season explores theme of public/private self, how the public and private aspects of our lives unfold in an increasingly complex world. “Detroit” offers up a view of two marriages, where circumstances mean that physical proximity is no guarantee of connection.

Medcalf, as Mary, is the heart of the play and she turns in a nuanced, powerful performance. We see her recalibrating her place in the world as she develops an unlikely friendship with Sharon, the feisty, self-confessed “white trash” stranger next door. D’Amour repeatedly sets up oppositions for them, my favorite being the cheese they serve at their getting-to-know-you suppers. Mary serves hers with a sprinkle of pink Himalayan salt. Sharon unapologetically offering Cheez Whiz. It’s moments like these that give the play its American heart.

Director Austin Pendleton gets committed performances from all of his actors, especially as the relationships take an odd turn towards the end. I cannot say that I entirely believed the backyard bacchanal of the finale, mainly because the set up, the creation of humdrum normalcy was so well pitched. D’Amour has an ear for the rhythms and pattern of day to day speech, capturing that to and fro of getting to know someone new, as people reveal themselves to one another. This isn’t quite carried through as the party gets out of hand, with life-changing consequences.

This is another strong showing from Steppenwolf, a theatre company that is unafraid to explore modern, middle-class America. This world premiere shows that they still have a great ear for the modern American dream.

Detroit is at the Steppenwolf theatre until November 7^th 2010. Tickets are available at www.steppenwolf.com