Kids. They’re cute until they’re not. Especially little boys with big sticks. When name calling just won’t cut it, sometimes you just swing the stick and – ouch! – contact is made.

And that is what brings the Novak and Raleigh parents together in Novak living room in God of Carnage, presented by Second Generation Theatre and onstage at the Shea’s Smith Theatre to March 15.

What’s especially fun about this production is that real-life married couples Kelly and Steve Copps are Veronica and Michael Novak, and  Kristin Bentley and Chris Avery are Annette and Alan Raleigh, the two couples who are trying to make peace after their two 11 year old sons scuffle.

The couples are together in the Novak living room and it’s all very civil, albeit a bit put on, as they politely chat. Should the boys apologize? Who should be present? Is the broken tooth healing? What started this anyway? And when agreeable resolution seems elusive, then it’s the parents’ turn to take their swings…verbally and otherwise.

Their facades start to crumble away, when Annette grumbles about Alan’s habitual use of his cell phone. Veronica’s erudite sophistication cracks when Michael and Alan display toxic masculinity. And then Annette barfs on Veronica’s prized publication. (This was almost as fun as Kelly Copps epic flatulence earlier this season in Alleyway Theatre’s production of The Cottage). Now the gloves are off and their carefully cultivated parenting plans are naked and exposed.

Yasmina Reza’s script is a dark comedy and indeed it is both: it’s hilarious in places and deeply sad in others. Through the cracks you see every family’s frail moments, the love that is slow simmering, the struggles to keep it all together. In the hands of this quartet, directed by Robyn Lee, the execution is point-perfect, well detailed, elegantly nuanced, and very real and human.

God of Carnage runs 70 minutes without intermission. Find details and tickets at sheas.org and spoiler alert: Nibbles the hamster is still at large.