“My friend Serge has bought a painting,” the character Marc says as the opening line of Yasmina Reza’s play “Art,” translated to English by Christopher Hampton. “It’s a canvas about five feet by four: white. The background is white and if you screw up your eyes, you can make out some fine white diagonal lines,” Marc, played by Bobby Cannavale, continues with disdain. “He’s done very well for himself, he’s a dermatologist and he’s really into art. On Monday, I went over to see the painting; Serge had actually got hold of it on Saturday, but he’d been lusting after it for several months. This white painting with white lines.”
While Serge, who bought the white painting, defends its artistry and Marc scoffs at the use of the word “artistry” anywhere near that canvas, Reza’s play is about more than defining what earns the label “art.”
“The core of the piece is about friendship,” said the revival’s director, Scott Ellis, on the latest episode of “Broadway Press Day with Ruthie Fierberg.” “Yasmina has talked about: It could be he could have bought a car, he could have bought a very expensive piece of antique. There were a lot of things he could have bought that could have strained the relationship — it happened to be a painting. It’s really about this friendship and — at the end — is it worth it?”
“Is the love of somebody, even though they disagree with you — politically, it could be religion, who you married — at what line do you get to say, ‘I’m going to keep trying, or you walk away?’ That’s what intrigued me.”
Indeed, “Art” seems like it could be an abbreviated title — short for “The Art of Communication” or “The Art of Friendship.” It’s those hidden layers that attracted its stars, including James Corden, who plays Yvan, the friend caught in the middle of the argument. “I just think it’s a really brilliantly crafted play,” Corden told Broadway News. (The play won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 1996 and the Tony Award for Best Play in 1998.)
“She’s written a masterpiece for actors,” Cannavale added. “This is so much fun. It’s one of the best f*cking plays about male friendship.”
“Art”’s three characters, Serge (played by Neil Patrick Harris), Marc and Yvan, have been friends for 25 years — at least in this version. Ellis revealed that that’s one of the few script changes he requested. “It was 15 [originally], but I thought the stakes are higher when it’s 25,” Ellis said.
