Indy Theatre Habit

On Sunday afternoon I drove with my windows down (balmy weather!) to Studio 15 in Carmel, just north of Indy, to see the Carmel Community Players’ production of “Art.”  This play was written by Yasmina Reza and translated from the French by Christopher Hampton.  CCP’s presentation was directed by Ken Klingenmeier and produced by Kim Howard.

I felt lucky to see this play so soon after seeing “Six Degrees of Separation,” by John Guare.  Both plays are about art and intimacy.  In both plays, the characters sometimes speak directly to the audience.  The pieces are very different in other ways, but they complement each other well.

In “Art,” three guys figure out their friendship as they figure out their own takes on art - art in general and one painting in particular.  Their conversations are smart, funny and thought-provoking.

Daniel Shock plays Serge, a man who pays a lot of francs for what seems to his friend, Marc (Larry Adams), to be just a 3′x4′ canvas painted white with three off-white diagonal lines on it.  Their friend, Yvan (Earl Campbell II) likes the painting well enough, and doesn’t care that Daniel paid so much money for it.  He is more interested in maintaining harmony among the friends.

In the post-show discussion with the three actors and the director, the men said that it had been helpful for them to see the three characters as representations of “the ego,” “the super-ego,” and “the id.”   I get that, and I respect whatever actors need to do in order to deliver the excellent performances that these men gave me on Sunday afternoon, but I still just enjoyed the show as a window into three friendships.

Three male friendships.  I was fascinated by the extent to which these three men dug in and analysed their relationships with one another without any nudging from women or therapists.  I kept thinking that if this play were about three women, it would be much more familiar, but therefore much less interesting.  The director said later that he had deliberately not “Americanized” the play other than to eliminate most of the French accents because French men do interact with each other this way, more than American men do.  I don’t know if I agree with that or not, but it was refreshing and intriguing to watch the three men in conversational action.

I was also intrigued, and a bit dismayed, by the idea that friendship is always an uneven exchange, with one person more of a leader or teacher or controller than the other.  I was surprised when Marc revealed that he had always valued his friendship with Serge because Serge looked up to him, and now that Serge was acting independently, buying art on his own without first consulting Marc, Marc felt bereft.

Is that truly why people become friends?  To submit or to control?  Yikes.

Maybe that is why I have a lot of relationships but very few friendships and no husband.  I keep looking for true partnership, a relationship in which the balance of power flows back and forth in a relatively even way.  It is rare, I know, but I also know that it exists.  I have seen it. 

I don’t know when I will find the time, but I think I may have to go see this show again.

If you go, go early so that you can see the art exhibit that hangs on the set before each performance.  The director told me that when they had finished painting the set, its flexibility reminded him of the movable walls in an art gallery, so he contacted the local high school and asked to borrow some student paintings.   They are beautiful and interesting - worth going early to see.

A few minutes before show time, the director and actors take down the paintings and carry on the simple set pieces.  The walls are light grey.  The sofa and easy chair are beige.  There is an arrangement of silver-painted eucalyptus in a vase behind the sofa.  The feeling is definitely pared-down, but whether it is elegant or monastic or comfortable depends on your own taste and mood.  (Set designed by Ken Klingenmeier.)

The men all wear variations of black and grey, continuing the understated theme.  There is no costume designer listed in the program, so I assume the actors dressed themselves with the help of the director.

The lighting, designed by Ron Creviston, frames the characters when they are speaking directly to the audience.  It also helps the audience to understand when we are in Marc’s apartment or Yvan’s, as opposed to Serge’s.  At the end of those scenes, the actors pick up the furniture and exit with it, which felt a little odd to me, but again, fits the “no clutter” theme of the whole show.

Even the acting is uncluttered.  Some of the funniest, most expressive moments come when there is no conversation - when Marc is first looking at Serge’s new painting and trying to think of what to say, for example.  I loved that neither Adams nor Shock rushes this scene.  Both of them convey volumes through a lifted eyebrow or a small sigh.

And the hilarious (hilarious!) silent, olive-eating scene that comes later in the play and involves all three men.  Oh, my, that was funny.

On the other hand, Campbell’s exhaustingly high-powered explanation of why Ivan was late is also hilarious.  I found myself cheering at the end of it. 

I loved that the playwright describes art as the completion of a journey.  I felt satisfied at the end of this show.

But I definitely want to go see it again.

“Art” runs weekends through March 16.  To make a reservation, please call the Carmel Community Players at 317-815-9387.  Here is a video preview as well.

Hope Baugh - www.IndyTheatreHabit.com