Serge buys a painting. Marc hates it. Yvan is verklempt over his friends’ feud and his coming wedding.
That’s the plotline of Yazmina Reza’s comic drama Art, now being staged by Remy Bumppo Theatre. But there’s much more to this story, cleverly directed by Marti Lyons and performed on an all-white set that mimics the Paris apartments of the three friends. The only change from scene to scene is a painting on the rear center wall, which flips to display a new work that represents each resident’s taste in art. Scenic design is by Lauren M. Nichols. The script translation is by Christopher Hampton.
Serge (Chad Bay), a successful dermatologist, is showing his new painting to his friend Marc (Justin Albinder), an aeronautical engineer, who Serge describes as an enemy of modernism. Serge tells Marc how thrilled he is to finally have a painting by the well-known painter Antrios. The painting is large and white.
Marc’s first question is, “Expensive?” And Serge replies, “Two hundred thousand.” Marc's response is, “You paid two hundred thousand francs for this shit?” And we are off to the races.
In an interscene, Marc describes Serge as comfortable, “but he’s not rolling in money.” He marvels again at Serge buying this “piece of white shit.”
The next day, Marc visits their friend Yvan (Eduardo Curley), who is in the midst of wedding planning misery with parents and step-parents staking their claims on wedding territory. (The large painting on Yvan’s wall is a traditional floral bouquet.) Marc describes Serge’s new painting as about five feet by four, all white with some white diagonal stripes. Marc thinks Serge now sees himself as an art collector, a connoisseur, and Marc is disturbed by what he sees as pretentiousness in his friend.
In Marc's apartment, he displays his taste in art with a classic landscape painting that’s referred to by Serge as Flemish (Pieter Brueghel?) but might remind you of the work of the French baroque artist Nicolas Poussin.
Yvan goes to visit Serge and they view the new painting. Yvan takes a moderate view of the work and Serge thinks he likes it.
The first time the three are together is when the friendship blows up. Serge and Marc are at Serge’s apartment, waiting for Yvan to join them for an evening of dinner and a movie. Yvan is late and when he arrives, he is distraught over the wedding invitations. Yvan’s very long monologue about his wedding frustrations is poignant and funny (and gets a round of audience applause).
Art is partly a play about art and the ways different people react to it. But it’s really a play about friendship and how what seem like small things can suddenly tear apart a solid relationship. Snarky comments made carelessly bring up past opinions and memories and make the estrangement worse. Serge insults Yvan’s painting. Serge and Marc argue about deconstruction. Serge tells Marc what he really thinks about his wife Paula, thus adding one more rupture to what has become a fragile friendship. Playwright Reza’s resolution is brilliant.
Reza’s structure features many short scenes, punctuated by blackouts, where one character speaks for a moment about his feelings about his friend or their current imbroglio. (Lighting design is by Liz Gomez. Costumes are by Kristi Leigh Hall. Cassidy Wray is stage manager.)
The actors who play this trio are all talented and convincing. They demonstrate that, although they have very different personalities and backgrounds, their bonds of friendship can be severely tested, but not quite broken.
Yazmina Reza is a French playwright, actor, novelist and screenwriter, best known for Art and God of Carnage, a play that later became the film Carnage.
Art by Remy Bumppo Theatre continues through June 1 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.
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