REVIEW: Art appreciation at Tring's Court Theatre
Award-winning play provides laughs during one-night exhibition.
YASMINA Reza's Art was a masterpiece that was garlanded with awards and won the appreciation of audiences everywhere.
Its success comes from outwardly giving the impression that it is a play about taste – but, like all great works of art, behind the broad brushstrokes there are a myriad of different levels and interpretations to be found.
On Thursday The Court Theatre played host to the latest re-telling of this brilliantly witty take about the meaning of friendship and, while some of the humour was lost in translation, it was well received by both an appreciative audience and the critic within.
You didn't have to know anything about paintings to enjoy both the story and the humour but one trip around the Tate Modern, would leave you in no doubt that the satire in Reza's pithy dialogue, is lost on most arty types.
While she mocks a dilettante who is willing to spend 200,000 francs on a white canvas the gallery does, indeed, have on its walls paintings that are totally white, completely blue and brazenly red. Are we all mad or are simply those who define the meaning of art?
The painting acts as a catalyst between three men, two successful, one a successful failure, which brings them to examine why and how their friendship had lasted 15 years.
Marc, an aeronautical engineer, always assumed that his best pal Serge, a dermatologist, was his twin under the skin and in tune with his way of thinking. The indecisive and highly-strung Yvan, like a piggy in the middle, acted as referee whenever a definitive answer was needed.
But Serge's decision to blow a seriously amount of cash on "a piece of ****" brought the whole essence of their friendship into doubt. Marc hated modern art and failed to see any merit in it. How had he been so wrong about Serge?
Serge, perhaps having some sort of mid-life crisis, begged to differ about the painting, seeing it as a good investment while Yvan...well he drifted from one side to the other in-between fretting about his up-coming nuptials.
In the denouement it came down to us discovering the meaning of art and the meaning of friendship between this heterosexual mnage a trois.
The comedy rested entirely on the performances of its three actors and in this the company had differing success.
Dan Clucas was the most naturally gifted comic actor of the trio. He probably had the toughest part as Yvan in that he has some seriously lengthy and hilariously funny monologues and these he delivered with a mixture of rising panic and pathos (it remains to be seen though whether it was the panic of the actor or the character in hoping he'd remember these epic speeches).
There was a constantly shifting dynamic between the three men with poor Yvan almost driven to a breakdown by being the weakest link. Clucas captured his hang-dog mood perfectly.
Bob Theaker's Serge was earnest and wry and a little underplayed. His character seemed as colourless as the painting he'd acquired compared to the passionate Serge or frantic Yvan and perhaps that was intentional.
It seemed Reza took an anonymous man who'd probably done nothing daring his entire life and given him a moment of madness. Underneath he was still walking in Marc's shadow.
Bill Oram seemed the least confident as Marc with odd pauses punctuating the flow of his dialogue but he got behind his character's rage and, at one point, engaged in a pretty physical confrontation with Serge.
There was a minimalist set, a couple of white cubes doubling as seats, and a central easel which held, at times, the offending picture. It was a set for the abstract rather than traditional enthusiast.
It was a shame that the play only ran for one night. It seemed like such a lot of effort of just 90 minutes performance time. Let's hope for a return in the future.
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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