Frenchwriter and actress Yasmina Reza’s play ART ,which opened in Paris in 1994, is considered a modern classic.
In ART, Serge has gone out and bought a work of contemporary art for $200, 000. The thing is that the canvas is simply filled with white paint, and perhaps some white lines.
Serge is chuffed with his purchase, and is just a bit peeved that he can’t make up his mind where to hang it in his very chic apartment.
Marc has seen the painting and thinks that it is a load of ‘avant garde’ bullocks. He can’t believe that one of his best friends has spent so much money on it. He asks their friend Yvan to go see it for himself, so that he has another close friend to share his sense of disbelief an d outrage.
Reza’s play ls something of a revelation. It is such a simple idea, three men and their arguments over a painting that one of them bought, and yet its tentacles extend everywhere. It is a stinging and very funny satire about the ‘avant garde’, those who celebrate it and those who move within it. Most of all, ART is more about friendship, close friendships, how deep they run, and yet how precarious they are.
There is a ‘neat’ plot that runs through the play which has some twists and turns to keep the audience guessing how things are going to resolve.
This latest revival of ART is well directed by Lee Lewis, and features a stellar, big name cast whose characters come across very clearly.
Damon Herriman played the very confident, more than full of himself , Serge, who is busy enjoying his very comfortable, bourgeois lifestyle.
Richard Roxburgh is Marc who is in a state of total apoplexy, (comic and sad at the same time), that his close friend can be so blind to the absurdity of his choice, and his need to be part of the ‘in’ crowd.
Toby Schmitz, a livewire actor, arguably too much at times, plays Yvan. This ‘super charged quality is very useful in ART which sees him deliver a stunning, word tripping, extended monologue that had the audience in stitches and applauding. Yvan is the kind of guy who likes to sit on the fence with things, and this raises Marc’s ire even more.
Lewis’ creative team, set and costume designer Charles Davis, lighting designer Paul Jackson, score by Max Lambert, and sound design by David Leach for System Sound, created a very distinctive world for the actors to work in.
This was a perfect match of a brilliant play with an exemplary cast. Yasmina Reza’s timeless ART is currently playing the Roslyn Packer theatre, part of the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.
