Courtesy of John Kayrouz

Student actor Andrew Kaberline is featured in a promotional poster for "God of Carnage."

Sit down and relax. Have a drink. Everything will not be fine.

Theater-lovers should prepare for a twisted night out because chaos is king in "God of Carnage," the newest production tearing through Blacksburg in a very limited engagement.

The show, winner of the 2009 Tony for best play, will appear this weekend courtesy of a few broke college students who wanted to let loose and have some manic fun.

"It's all just chaos and carnage, man," said Ryan Hunt, a Virginia Tech student who is the show's director.

"God of Carnage" by French playwright Yasmina Reza is the story of two affluent urban couples who meet to discuss a violent playground incident involving their children. Over the course of the evening and more than a few drinks, civility and respect dissolve and the characters begin to let loose on one another.

"It's all there in the title," the first-time director said.

Hunt is not your average theater student. He is pursuing a minor in the craft, but his love for a great show inspired him to submit "God of Carnage" as a possible workshop production through Tech's department of theater and cinema.

"I read the play back when it came out, and I fell in love immediately. I knew it was what I wanted to do," he said.

After submitting the show as a workshop, Hunt assembled his creative team and started planning his schedule around the project, but it was not meant to be. The idea was turned down.

"It was a blow, but we all took just one day to pout because I think we knew we would do it anyway," he said.

After picking up his spirits, the young directed gathered some friends and fellow students and started staging his vision.

Hunt made a compromise with the theater department, which allowed him to borrow performance space. He is using the play as a final project in a directing class, something that has never been done at Tech.

"We formed this guerilla-style theater group, and I think we're better for it," Hunt said.

Hunt placed enormous responsibility on his cast to help him do justice to the show, and he chose actors he knew would dedicate themselves to the potentially chaotic production process.

"This is one of the most fulfilling plays I've worked on," said cast member Jason Tyler Tolbert.

"Ryan has given us a lot of room to feel it out and it wasn't a struggle at all to do this."

Hunt chose the right people to make his vision come to life, Tolbert said.

One of those people is Andrew Kaberline, a close friend of Hunt's and another one of the show's four actors.

In addition to creating his character and verbally abusing fellow cast mates for a few hours a week, Kaberline is helping Hunt produce the show under the banner of B Cast Entertainment, an ever-changing troupe of college-aged theater-lovers that he formed in Northern Virginia.

"B Cast is something I helped start in high school, and the idea is to use it as a creative outlet for friends at a few different universities," Kaberline said.

B Cast Entertainment uses the performance of new or original work to explore aspects of the human condition. The troupe also works without any real budget, a situation "God of Carnage" had to deal with after becoming an independent production.

"Ryan asked me if I wanted to use the B Cast name for this show, and they really went along with each other," Kaberline said.

"God of Carnage" opens this weekend for a one-night official engagement, but Hunt and his crew are still hard at work.

"I won't say this show is great until we do it for an audience, but that's the hope," Hunt said.

"I have no agenda with this. I love it and I want to simply entertain you," he said with a mischievous smile.