Maidment Theatre
Review: Susan Budd
What a play. What performances. What a superlatively stylish set and lighting. What can I say?
Since its first production in Paris in 1995, Art has been translated into 15 languages, played in more than 50 theatres and gathered armfuls of accolades.
It is witty, intelligent and so tightly written that not one word seems redundant. The three characters are men of a certain age who are as supremely articulate as only the French can be in discussions of philosophy and dissection of personal emotions.
Although it is a perfect play for the chattering classes, with its sophisticated veneer of culture, it is founded on the bedrock of sharp analysis of human relationships.
Art centres on the reactions of his two friends to Serge's acquisition of a large white painting, superimposed with invisible white lines. Is it art or postmodernist pretension?
The argument rages until the conflict becomes deeply personal, revealing the history of the men's friendship and struggles for the balance of power.
Marc is an aeronautical engineer, a pragmatist and a traditionalist. His reaction is one of total outrage at a work that has "ingeniously eliminated form and colour" and disdain of a friend who has become a mere connoisseur.
Serge, a dermatologist, waxes lyrical on the magnetism and resonance of his painting, while Ivan, in the process of induction into the wholesale stationery trade and into marriage, neither loves nor hates it. Battle ensues, with Ivan caught unhappily in midfire.
The performances are superb. Peter Elliott's Serge, with his immaculate goatee and careful elegance, is the epitome of the self-absorption of mid-life cool. His confident charm masks a ruthless bully and supreme egoist.
Roy Billing gives a magnetic portrayal of Marc, a man with the subtlety of a rampaging elephant when wounded or opposed.
As Ivan, Paul Barrett is reminiscent of Jacques Tati. A melancholy clown striving to please, he becomes the focus of bullying. His desperate speech on the iniquities of mothers is a tour de force.
Simon Prast's production is lean and mean and John Parker's set and Bryan Caldwell's lighting are consummately stylish.
Performance: Art
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