'Art'

Imagine a canvas, about five feet by four feet, painted white – just white. Maybe with a few diagonal lines running across it if you look really, really hard. Is that art? And more importantly, if your friend pays 200,000 francs for it without consulting your opinion, should you take that as a personal affront?

That’s the question at the heart of ‘Art’, a comedy about three friends with wildly different reactions to a white-on-white painting one of them purchases. Originally written in French by Jewish playwright Yasmina Reza, the Canadian production stars Colin Mochrie (Whose Line is it Anyway?) as Serge, an art lover and the happy new owner of the painting. He’s hurt and rankled when his friend Marc (Peter Donaldson) reacts with contempt Marc, in turn, feels insulted that his own friend, whose taste he feels was influenced by and thus reflects his own, would fall in love with such a stupid example of “art.”

Rounding out the cast is their wishy-washy friend Yvan (Evan Buliung), who mostly agrees with Marc but can’t bear to hurt Serge’s feelings, and would rather spend the time complaining about his own problems with his domineering fiancée.

Despite its title, ‘Art’ isn’t really about art. There are jokes about modernism, value, and seeing things in art that aren’t really there, but ‘Art’ is more about the dynamics of friendship. For the first half, there are some wonderful zingers as the three friends bounce back and forth between each other’s sleek apartments, aided by some clever use of video projected against the back wall. Serge tries to get the others to see the painting as he does, while Marc tries to figure out what on earth his friend was thinking, and both use Yvan as the go-between.

Unfortunately, once the three get together and really let their feelings fly, the yelling and arguing becomes a bit repetitive. Aside from one truly spectacular monologue about his wedding invitations – it lasts about five minutes and earned its own round of applause – Buliung doesn’t have much to do except moan about how crazy the other two are, backtrack on his words, or fret about his upcoming nuptials in a much overused subplot. The casting also seems a little off – it’s hard to believe that Yvan is a close friend of both Marc and Serge, considering he looks about two decades younger. Moreover, while Colin Mochrie brings some nuance and sensitivity to the role of Serge (he’s not quite as clueless as the other two believe), Donaldson is funny but a little too one-note in his cantankerousness to be really engaging.

Despite some increasingly irritating arguments as the play progresses, Serge and Marc are believable as a pair of feuding friends, and ‘Art’ is overall quite enjoyable. Like the central painting itself, the play is mostly all surface – it doesn’t take a very serious look at a friendship gone awry – but the script usually has enough style to compensate for the lack of substance. And most importantly, like all good art, the play leaves some room for interpretation: you may not leave with new insights into the definition of art, but some neat little twists show that the nature of aesthetics – and friendship – are always up for debate.

‘Art’ runs until Apr. 10 at the Bluma Appel Theatre. For more information, visit www.canadianstage.com.