Yazmina Reza's Art at Barrington Stage Company
July 22 to August 8
By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 07, 2010
Yasmina Reza is an absorbing and skillful playwright. We first saw a production of Art more than a decade ago in London. This past winter there was a staged reading of the intricate and provocative play at the Clark Art Institute in collaboration with the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It was one of the highlights of the off season.
The New York version of Art won the Tony Award for best play in 1998. In 2009 she won again for God of Carnage. This past season there were numerous cast changes as the play continued its run on Broadway. I much enjoyed seeing a WTF regular, Dylan Baker, playing as usual a complex nasty guy. His wife was performed by Lucy Liu. Baker will be back in Williamstown this summer in Our Town at WTF.
Following hard on the success of Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street it seems that artistic director Julianne Boyd is taking another tack. The season was launched with an expensive and complex production. Compared to which Art is low key and introspective to a fault.
It entails a discussion/ argument between three friends about the purchase, for a rather hefty sum, of a white on white painting. For the collector it is a prized acquisition. But to his two friends the glass is either half empty or half full.
In a witty and absorbing manner Reza plays on the vulgarian taste of the audience by exploring the fable of the Emperor’s clothes. Most will agree that the monarch is indeed nude. It is the conventional response to avant-garde art of a minimalist persuasion.
There is of course a dense and legitimate evolution in modernist painting that led to the genre of white on white paintings. Starting with the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. His white square on a white background, 1918, is a familiar masterpiece in the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA has also mounted a retrospective of works by Robert Ryman a contemporary artist who specializes in white on white paintings. Many artists reveled in the subtle beauty of that exhibition.
But Art is not an evening of art history, theory and philosophy. It is really about friendship and relationships. How an argument over aesthetics can push the edges of trust and support. It is about respect and the lack thereof. It is a matter of taste.
In both Art and God of Carnage by the end of a witty evening of theatre things fall apart. So there is a sameness to these plays and Reza’s sardonic view of the human condition.
What follows is the press release from Barrington Stage Company.
Barrington Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Producing Director Richard M. Parison, Jr., continues its 2010 mainstage season with Yasmina Reza’s award-winning comedy ART. This smart and funny play explores the value and meaning of both friendship and art when a (nearly) all-white painting ignites an escalating argument among three men, threatening to destroy their long friendship.
Directed by Henry Wishcamper (LCT 3’s Graceland, Keen Company’s Pullman Car Hiawatha), ART will run from July 22 through August 8, with an Opening Night scheduled for Sunday, July 25 at 5:00pm.
The cast features Brian Avers (BSC’s The Violet Hour, Black Comedy; Broadway: Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n Roll) portrays Yvan, Michael Countryman (BSC’s Ciao!; Off-Broadway Equivocation; Broadway: Mary Stuart) plays Marc, and making his BSC debut is David Garrison (Television: Married… with Children; Broadway: Wicked, Titanic) who plays Serge.
“’Art’ is,” says Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, “the kind of play I love – funny, smart, and wonderfully human. And about something all of us can relate to: friendship.”
The creative team includes scenic designer Robin Vest, costume designer Jenny Mannis, lighting designer Matt Richards, and sound designer Bart Fasbender. Wesley Apfel is the production stage manager.
Since its premiere in 1995 in Paris , ART has been performed worldwide and translated in over 30 languages. Reza holds the record for the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Play twice – ART in 1998 and God of Carnage in 2009. Her other works include The Unexpected Man and Life (x) 3.
Performances of Yasmina Reza’s ART are from July 22 through August 7 are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, Friday matinees at 2pm, and Sunday at 5pm at BSC Mainstage, 30 Union St., Pittsfield. Additional matinee performance on Wed., July 28 at 2pm. Opening Night: Sun., July 25 at 5:00pm. Tickets: $15-$56. Seniors: $35 all matinees. Pay What You Can Night for 35 year olds and younger: Fri., July 30 at 8:00pm. Barrington Stage is fully-accessible, including wheelchair accessibility and assisted listening devices at every performance. Accessible seating is available by reservation. For ticket information, call 413-236-8888, stop by the BSC Box Office at 30 Union Street , or visit www.barringtonstageco.org
.