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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
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Art explores truth in friendship |
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| Art explores truth in friendship | ||
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by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer Art Eclectic Theater Company September 28 Your best friend invites you over to see their fantastic new purchase, which cost a boatload of money. They think it's amazing, but you look at it, laugh, and think, "He or she must be crazy to think this is worth that kind of money!" Now, your friend is trying hard not to feel hurt, and is angry that you're making fun of the purchase and is rationalizing that you don't understand the value of & whatever it is. You can't believe your friend thinks this is worth it. The play, Art, produced by Eclectic Theater Company, has just this story. A friend buys an all-white painting - well, Serge (Karl Holzheimer) doesn't think it's all white. He sees all kinds of meaning and color and movement. Marc (Mathew Ahrens) sees a white canvas, just like someone slapped some white paint on canvas and called it "art." Serge thinks Marc doesn't know anything about modern art. Marc tries to get Yvan, a mutual friend, to tell Serge it's a piece of crap painting. Yvan (David Kubiczky) likes to get along and hates to confront people, so he agrees with Marc that the painting is crap, but tells Serge he sees something of warmth and value in it. All the friendships are threatened. Everything about their 15-year relationship is now hanging in the balance. How do you solve this? It's a great premise. It's not really about art; friendship is at the heart of the play, how we tell each other about each other, how we have compassion or contempt for each other, what we hide or what we reveal. The dialogue, as translated by Christopher Hampton, seems "talky" and a bit highbrow. I wish I knew if the actual play, in the actual language, was the same way. I have to hope that it's more the translator picking great big English words, rather than a stilted playwright. But it's also extremely funny, mostly. Each of these actors is a strong character and a strong actor in his own right. They each swing from amazement to consternation to contempt to personal obsession and around and around. Although Holzheimer and Ahrens are the two friends who are at odds, the swing vote, Yvan, takes the prize for standout role. Yvan is a no-decision-maker, I-don't-care kind of friend. Kubiczky is hysterical as Yvan relates a phone conversation with his mother and his fiancée as they plan the wedding, being himself, his mother and his fiancée in this long monologue. Yvan demonstrates that he doesn't make decisions anywhere in his life. He's constantly trying to split the difference. Kubiczky gets more and more overwrought and funnier as he goes. He straddles the line between rant and hissy fit, and while he sometimes loses it toward hissy fit, mostly he stays on the rant side. Serge and Marc even end up pushing each other into a physical altercation, which Yvan tries to break up and ends up getting hurt. The exploration of the friendships uncovers potential lies told from the very beginning. They are all on the verge of never seeing each other again. Then, Serge gives a marker to Marc and urges Marc to write on the painting, goading Marc to ruin it. This is to demonstrate that Serge cares more about Marc and the friendship than the expensive painting. It succeeds in bridging the gulf between them and the friendship is saved. But, right at the end, Serge confides to the audience that he really knew that marker could get washed off the painting with the right chemical mix. So, he lied to Marc, kept his painting, and saved the friendship. It was fun to watch these guys go through their paces. Eclectic Theater Company's next production, The Little Death, opens October 10th. For more information, go to www.eclectictheatercompany.org or call 206-375-8945 or go to www.brownpapertickets.com or call 800-838-3006. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com. |
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