Season Select: Art

Art

By Yasmina Reza

Directed by Jackson Gay

Fast Facts

Playing: Touchstone Theatre | June 13 - September 28
Featuring: La Shawn Banks, Triney Sandoval, Marcus Truschinski
Genre: Contemporary Comedy
Last Seen at APT: First Time!
Go If You Liked: The Unexpected Man (2017), Constellations (2024), Once Upon a Bridge (2023)

About Art

A pricey piece of abstract art contains multitudes. Or it contains nothing of note. Perspective is key, and opinions are free – but what do they say about the beholder? The fate of a friendship hangs in the balance (and quite literally on the wall) as three men test the boundaries of their once-steady status quo, throwing barbs with abandon as they build alliances and burn bridges with equal aplomb. Join as they dig in, waver and challenge, navigating their perceptions of each other and themselves. It’s a wickedly funny look at friendship, flaws and all, overflowing with wit and charm and plenty of snark. An artful debate that will leave you laughing. Runs June 13 - September 28.

Yasmina Reza’s Art paints a complicated portrait of taste and friendship, still causing ripples some 30 years after its French premiere in 1995. Since then, the play has continued to surprise audiences through its sardonic, often stinging, remarks on identity and self-expression, a staple of Reza’s sleek works. Shortly after it opened in Paris, Art’s meaty characters and charged dialogue launched it onto an international stage, where it continues to be performed globally and has been translated into dozens of languages.

The play has also earned attention for its long list of accolades: three Molière Awards (the national theater award of France) for Best Playwright, Best Author and Best Production at an Independent Theatre; a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play for the 1997 English-language production on London’s West End; and the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play.

Reza found inspiration for Art following a conversation with a friend who had just purchased a monochromatic white painting for a rather hefty price, prompting her to reflect on how surprising friendships can still be after years of acquaintance. Though the play centers on the disputed genius of a similar but fictional painting, actor Alfred Molina, who played Yvan in the Broadway production, shared that the Art “ironically is like the open canvas that the play seems to be addressing,” asking the audience to leave with their own opinions about the meaning behind the art and play themselves.

In the play, Serge purchases the painting for 200,000 euros, making it roughly worth $395,769.63 in USD currency today. And though that amount of money is not to be dismissed lightly, it doesn’t even begin to touch the more expensive end of the art collection industry. In 2016, the art world was shocked by the $500 million purchase of two contemporary pieces, Willem de Kooning's “Interchange” and Jackson Pollock's "Number 17A," making the pair some of the most expensive privately purchased modern art in the world. And while those pieces are colorful and full of abstract expressionism, Robert Ryman’s 1930 minimalist work “Bridge” - an all-white canvas - was auctioned for $20.6 million in 2015 at Christie’s, sparking plenty of opinions on what is valuable art and, simply, what is art.