Art Review

The Lowry, Salford – until Saturday 31st March 2018.  Reviewed by Julie Noller

5*****

Art was written by talented fresh young writer Yasmina Reza back in 1996 initially in French. It enjoyed a lengthy residence at the Wyndham’s Theatre where a succession of actors with distinction took over the three roles. Now twenty years later I’m settled in my chair in a packed auditorium in Manchester to join the many who have watched this comedy over the years. The stage is in darkness when I enter to find my seat, apart from what I initially thought was a window simply lit, alas on closer inspection I realised it was the back of a canvas. Chortling I wondered was that the effect, to make us question what we are seeing from the start? Art work like a window is looked at and yet the view is different from many angles.

Art they say is all down to personal interpretation isn’t it? One mans beauty is another mans junk? So is Rezas play about one mans desire to own a piece of art, that is desired above everything? Is it about what we should deem as art? Or is it about a group of three men, heading into their twilight years?

Art is clever its witty and extremely fast paced. It stars three very well known names from Britain’s entertainment industry and their comfort at being on stage as well as their skills at their craft shine through to make Art a thoroughly enjoyable eighty minutes of people watching. Each of our three men is significantly different, how is it possible they are friends? A question they each ask of the other. Serge is a divorced dermatologist played charmingly by Nigel Havers, he has an interest in contemporary art and obviously perhaps with a little jealousy from his friends has the money to be able to pursue his passion. Marc I viewed with perhaps a touch of confusion, Denis Lawson brought this rational and practical engineer to life. He is stubborn and unwielding, life is either black or white. Art should be purchased for the enjoyment not for the name and price tag, perhaps because he doesn’t have the money to buy for the name? His protestations hint towards pretentiousness. Then there’s Stephen Tompkinson as warm, friendly, down to earth Yvan. A man struggling as a salesman in his future in-laws family business. He is mocked by his two peers, almost bullied as he shares his worries over his impending wedding, you worry for him and want to cheer him on. Stephen Tomkinson’s speech in the middle regarding his telephone conversation with his mother earned a well deserved applause it was exhilarating and had me trying to breathe for him, I fully understood his wish to avoid offending anyone.

The object of Art is Serges purchase of ‘white’ a seemingly blank canvas for £200,000, Marc is outraged has he not guided Serge enough for him to seek his opinion before his rash purchase. Both men attempt to draw in Yvan to back up their side of the argument, he at first does attempt to go with the flow and agrees with both Serge and Marc. As the argument takes a turn for the nastier, it moves from those bantering gentle vibes reminiscent of young twenty year old’s on a Saturday night discussing the weeks event and indeed who scored the best goal. To looking like sad old men bickering and bullying each other, you want to scream “grow up” but you can’t you’re simply gripped to the action unfolding. You see each character dissected in front of your eyes, you link each character to people around you, see their personalities fall apart. It sounds like Art is a serious take on these three men’s lives, yes it is but as with life there is humour and wit and like life you must laugh and laugh we did. Perhaps we laughed because we saw glimpses of ourselves on stage, perhaps we laughed because we thanked the stars we are not like those men.

Mark Thompson deserves credit for his cleverly simplistic set design, white lines against the wall, is it a Venetian blind? Is it art itself? Or is it there to highlight that white canvas so you see those white lines from all angles? There the minimalist set impresses, a large table that comfortably at times acts as a bench and then three very different white chairs perhaps reflecting the personalities of our three characters, the contemporary stylish, the classical never faltering and the comfortable armchair welcoming each like a long lost friend. Art may appear to be slightly out of time, from the era of yuppies where you talked the talk. But the pure enjoyment of seeing characters dissected and relationships explored never loses its appeal. Art closes simply with each friend lit up in a different colour, highlighting their differences but equally showing that those differences are necessary to keep the ying and yang balance