by Yasmina Reza
Directed by Morris Panych
Starring Colin Mochrie, Peter Donaldson and Evan Buliung
Playing through April 10th www.canadianstage.com
Reviewed
by Robin Breon
This is the third
production of Art I've seen since its
Paris premiere in 1994 where it won three Moliere awards for best play,
best
playwright and best production. Now translated into over 35 languages,
this
short, sharp and smart debate between friends on the nature of art
continues to
please even as it enters its dinner theatre and summer stock phase of
theatrical half-life. But freshen up the white paint a bit, add in a
few new
scenic elements (as director Morris Panych has creatively done
with this Toronto
re-mount) and let the sparring begin with Serge, Mark and Yvan holding
forth on
the value (both aesthetic and commercial) of Serge's avant-garde
canvass for
which he paid 200,000 francs (approx. $50,000).
The play is popular for two reasons: it is a
genuinely
funny and candid interaction that is shared between long time friends
who
really speak in unguarded and direct language about their feelings.
Value added
for Canadian audiences comes from the fact that it echoes the candid
national
debate (protest might be more accurate) the country had in 1989 when
the
National Gallery of Canada purchased abstract expressionist painter
Barnett
Newman's 1967 work, Voice of Fire, for 1.8 million dollars. The large
canvass,
which consists of a single red stripe on a blue background (or two blue
stripes
on a red background depending on how you look at it) is worth in excess
of 10
million dollars in today's art market. The second reason for the play's
popularity is that it is short; at 80 minutes, it is about as much time
as
anyone visiting the theatre after a full day might care to spend on the
subject. Colin Mochrie, Peter Donaldson
and Evan Buliung play
Serge, Marc and Yvan respectively as they insult one another, attempt
to
reconcile and then fall out once again while trying to figure out
whether
strong feelings about art should determine the future of their
relationship as
friends. The actors underplay and expertly get their laughs in all the
right
places, Yvan gets his applause after his extended monologue that
reveals the
imploding details of his upcoming marriage, and it all works out well
in the
end.
Upon the third viewing of Art I couldn't
help but to
think what other elements might be brought into it in order for us to
see the
play in a new light. It occurred to me that the character of Yvan, the
most
sensitive of the three men and the peacemaker of the group who is all
worries
about his upcoming wedding and his relationship with his new
mother-in-law,
might be gender bended and cast as a woman. The more I listened to the
dialog,
the more I became convinced that it would open the play up a bit and
give a
little employment over to some of the women who immediately count
themselves
out when they see yet another production of Art on the upcoming season
of plays
on the mainstage of one of their cities' theatre companies.
Return to Home Page