COURTESY OF THE ACTORS GROUP
A piece of art brings conflict among friends in the play "Art," starring, from left, Russell Motter, David Farmer and Mark Stitham.
It's like a "Seinfeld" episode, but much longer. That single sentence sums up The Actors Group's production of "Art." French playwright Yasmina Raza dissects the corrosive impact of a painting on a friendship with the same type of meticulous introspection that made "Seinfeld" -- the comedy often described as "a show about nothing" -- such a hit. Buy into the premise -- that three men, the closest of friends for 15 years, could come to blows over the artistic merits of "modern" art -- and TAG's staging of this long one-act play will almost certainly live up to its billing. Much ado about everything
Actors bring quirky friends to comic life
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com
The three-man cast -- David C. Farmer, Russell Motter, and Mark Stitham -- deliver a phenomenal performance in bringing the quirky characters to life.
Presented by The Actors Group 'Art'
Where: Yellow Brick Studio, 625 Keawe St.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through March 2
Tickets: $10
Call: 591-7999
The battle starts when Serge (Farmer) gleefully shows Marc (Stitham) a painting he purchased for 200,000 francs (about $40,000 at the time the play was written). The painting is white-on-white with some faint gray lines running diagonally downward from left to right, with some hints of other colors near the bottom. Serge states emphatically that the artist has made a brilliant artistic and cultural statement that far surpasses his similar white-on-white work in the 1970s.
Marc's opinion of the painting can't be printed in a family newspaper.
Yvan (Motter) doesn't care one way or the other, and represents the voice of logic: If Serge can afford the painting, and if it makes it him happy, why should anyone one else care?
UNFORTUNATELY FOR Yvan, his two friends demand that he take sides. Is Serge a pretentious idiot for spending 200,000 francs on a white canvas? Or is Marc a reactionary uncultured jerk for not recognizing the work's brilliance?
Serge and Marc then attack Yvan for being more concerned about his upcoming wedding than about their battle over the "correct" assessment of the painting.
Serge and Marc continue to use Yvan as their sounding board in examining the minutiae of their friendship and relentlessly pick it to pieces with comments such as, "It doesn't count if he laughs first," and "I blame him for his tone of voice."
Attempts to find a middle position or to agree to disagree come to nothing. Sincere efforts at reconciliation end up fueling greater levels of hostility.
Farmer, Motter and Stitham mesh so seamlessly that the action between them transcends -- for the most part -- the absurd superficiality of the conflict, which gives way to deeper issues.
For instance, Marc's initial question, "How could my friend pay 200 grand for that?" becomes, "How can I be friends with someone who would pay 200 grand for that?"
Farmer seems perfectly cast as a fashion-conscious aficionado of post-modern art. Stitham plays the part of the staunch conservative with equal skill and command.
Motter, who first made a name for himself on the local stage playing villains, adds two more, that's right, two more comic performances -- first, as the tightly-wound emotionally unstable Yvan, and then, in a lengthy scene-within-a scene, as Yvan's manipulative, domineering mother.
Hawaii is not likely to see three more polished comic performances on the local stage this season.
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