‘Art’ by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton
Delaware Theatre Company
January 23 - February 10, 2008
General Beauty | Program Letter | Photos
Sets: Beowulf Boritt
Costumes: Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind
Lights: Joshua L. Schulman
Sound: Mark Valenzuela
Stage Manager: Rick Cunningham
Cast (in alphabetical order): Stephen Patrick Martin, Pete Pryor, James Michael Reilly
This production was partially inspired by the work of Middle Eastern architects and artists such as Farshid Moussavi and Homayoon Salimi.
The first track (“African Suite: Mbira/Djembe”) from the album L.A.G.Q. by Los Angeles Guitar Quartet also influenced the feel and approach of the production. Listen to a sample.
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General Beauty
“I should have said to him, you’re supposed to be my friend, what sort of friend are you, Serge, if you donít think your friends are special.”
- Marc
“My friend Serge, who’s one of my oldest friends, has bought a painting. It’s a canvas about five feet by four. It represents a man who move across a space then disappears.”
- Marc
‘Art’ connects the dots between friendship and art and the many other things we human beings do to create for ourselves a safe harbor in the storm. The men in the play fear disappearing, fear discovering they are not special or unique. The impulse to make friends, to create art, or to fall in love, the play says, comes from the desire to fight off this fear of disappearing. For much of the play, there is no beauty as the characters act out of fear. The beauty comes when they learn to see, act, and feel with a generosity of spirit.
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Program Letter
When ‘Art’ first hit the international scene back in the mid-90’s, Yasmina Reza was the theatre “it girl” in Paris, London, and New York. Her play was a smash hit, and for several years was the most produced play in American regional theatres. Reza is once again a cultural ‘it girl,’ though this time just in Paris. New French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Reza to follow him on the election trail and her book detailing his campaign is now THE book of the French literary year.
I thought about this book as I thought about our production of ‘Art’. When you take on a classic like play like this one, part of your job is to see what it has to say about the world right now. ‘Art’ is a play about what people do when they fear they are losing their influence, their identity, or, to take it to an extreme, their very existence. Seen through this light, one can take a look around and see that this play has a lot to say about what’s going on in the world.
The men in the play fear disappearing, fear discovering they are not special or unique. What ‘Art’ hints at is that the impulse to make friends, to create art, to fall in love (or even, perhaps, to get behind certain political leaders), comes from the desire to fight off this fear of disappearing. How do we act when this fear hits us head on?
Each of the men in ‘Art’ is desperately caught up in the act of maintaining their own chosen self-image. When their friends suddenly refuse to reflect back to them that image, chaos ensues. Their fears begin to drive their actions and destruction seems imminent. Will their fears win out or can courage and generosity of spirit make a last minute appearance to save the day?
I’ve come to look at ‘Art’ as a call for more generosity of spirit and a salute to friendship and art as two of the ways in which we learn to be more generous. Which brings us back to Sarkozy - he made his reputation as a law and order man who came down hard on the riots mainly involving North African immigrants in Parisian suburbs prior to the election. Some labeled him as racist, but, upon winning the election, he assembled a cabinet that was among the most diverse in French history. Maybe, just maybe, Sarkozy learned something from Reza along the campaign trail!
We hope ‘Art’ entertains, thrills, and ultimately makes you think a little about yourself, your friends, and what qualities make you both special and eternal.
If you’d like to share any of those thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to e-mail me at dstradley@delawaretheatre.org.
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