While there may be a question as to who coined the theater adage, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” there is little doubting its accuracy. Successful comedy requires a precise mixture of clever playwriting and strong acting, a combination the Malibu Stage Company has hit upon with its first offering of the 2012-13 repertory season: Yasmina Reza’s Tony award-winning play, “art.” The lower-case first letter of the title is Ms. Reza’s opening dig at the effete world of post-modern deconstructionist art. The play goes on to skewer the pretense associated with it.
Since premiering in Paris in 1994, the play has been performed in more than 600 productions and 30 languages, attesting to the appeal of its theme. Ostensibly, the play asks the age-old question, “What is art?” But it quickly shifts to the equally difficult question, “What is friendship?” It does this by uncovering layer by layer the depth of a long-term friendship among three men that is put to the test when one of them purchases, for $200,000, a four foot by five foot painting. There’s just one catch: the painting is all white.
During most of the play the canvas sits on an easel center stage in the apartment of Serge, the purchaser. There it is studied, inspected, praised and derided. When the scene shifts to the apartments of Serge’s two friends, Mark and Yvan, the painting is replaced on the easel with a conventional one that Serge deprecates as “motel art.”
The three friends are played by MSC veterans. Oscar Best portrays Serge with his usual authority, but despite his large physical presence and booming voice his appeal for his friends’ validation of his artistic judgment is in vain. Will Carney’s Mark, though having a mordant wit, is momentarily rendered speechless when Serge tells him what he paid for the painting. Soon, however, he regains his tongue and lets his friend know with some colorful language what he thinks of his new purchase. The third friend, a befuddled Yvan (Brian Pietro), hesitates to contradict either of the other two.
Serge’s quest for his friends’ approval produces a rancorous venting of long-held but suppressed feelings, punctuated by witty insults and retorts. Over the course of the play, the bond that holds the three men together is tested, as the original question (What is art?) slowly changes into a meditation on the nature of friendship.
In roles that demand brio, Oscar Best, Will Carney and Brian Pietro each give bravura performances that reach the top but do not go over it. Ms. Reza’s dialogue is witty, sharp and rapid fire. This production might be made a little more comfortable for the audience if the pace were slowed down a tad. The dialogue is too good to risk missing any of it.
The handiwork of director Natalie Blossom is evident in the choreography of the actors’ movements (including a brief scuffle) and the precision of the overlapping dialogue. The single living room set is spare, modern and consistent with the play’s theme, and was also designed by Blossom, whose customary role at MSC to date has been on stage. The play was produced by Brian Pietro, David Yardley and the MSC’s Artistic Director, Richard Johnson. It was adapted to English by Christopher Hampton.
“art” will run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 5 p.m. through October 14th. Reservations can be made at 310.589.1998 and tickets purchased at brownpapertickets.com or MalibuStageCompany.org. Tickets are $25 and there are discounts for seniors, students, firefighters, U. S. Military and others.