Left to Right: Hart Wood as Banquo, Matt Bannister as Macbeth, and Stephanie Dorius as Nona (Witch 3). Photo courtesy of Silver Spring Stage. Left to Right: Hart Wood as Banquo, Matt Bannister as Macbeth, and Stephanie Dorius as Nona (Witch 3). Photo courtesy of Silver Spring Stage.

In the theater, the most terrifying battles often occur not in the epic landscapes of war, but across a coffee table. Dark Horse Theatre Company, under the sharp direction of Natasha Parnian, stages Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage as a definitive 90-minute autopsy of civility, proving that the modern parental unit is merely a thin veneer laid over primordial rage. This is less a play and more a rapid-fire cultural indictment, leaving the audience to choke on the sticky remains