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'ART' at Ashland Community Theatre By Robert H. Miller Special to the Tidings Serge, Marc and Yvan have been friends for fifteen years, living in Paris and getting together periodically to share a companionable meal and see a movie. So what's the posher when Serge buys a contemporary painting for 200,000 francs? Why do they behave like three musketeers, but dueling among themselves, not with swords but words? The answer is found in "Art," the remarkable new play by Yasmina Reza (she calls it a "funny tragedy"), translated by Christopher Hampton, now being presented by Ashland Community Theatre at Ashland Middle School. Doug Mitchell, who directs with singular sensibility, observes: "How wonderfully this woman has captured the intricacies of male friendship and the insecurities of the ego." Marc (Daniel Grossbard), married and an aeronautical engineer, visits Serge's apartment to view the acquisition - a totally white canvas about five feet by four by fashionable artist Antrios. If he screws up his eyes, he can detect some fine white diagonal lines on it. Well, Marc just sees red! He pronounces the painting trash in less delicate language. This is art? More likely, artifice! Serge (Scott Honeywell), a dermatologist, allows Marc really to get under his skin, and considers him "one of those new-style intellectuals who are not only enemies of modernism, but seem to take some sort of incomprehensible pride in running it down." We next meet Yvan (Dan Ferris), who is scrabbling around on the floor trying to find the top to a blue felt-tip pen. He tells us he has just found a new job as a sales agent for a wholesale stationery business. "People like me, " he says. "My professional life has always been a failure and I'm getting married in two weeks." Marc regards him as "a very tolerant guy" and persuades him to visit Serge and see what he thinks of the painting and confirm that the man has lost his sense of humor. Yvan says he'll make Serge laugh, and indeed he does. But proceedings hereon are no laughing matter - except for the audience. Their differences over art deepen into personal abrasiveness that leads to a fragmented friendship. When Marc and Serge both turn on Yvan, he, with a cry from the heart, asks: "Why do we see each other, if we hate each other? It's obvious we do hate each other! I mean, I don't hate you, but you hate each other! And you hate me!" So where do we go from here? Is restoration possible? The playwright has a masterstroke ready. If "Art" on one hand is an intriguing exploration of the tenuous nature of relationships over time, on the other hand it is a virtuosic rendering of male conversation. The set design by Susan Carhart, pleasantly minimalist, serves as the main room in the apartments of Serge, Marc, and Yvan, differentiated solely by a framed painting on the back wall. The Antrios is unframed. The set is admirably complemented by Saj Kirkland's lighting. The three actors have each been given a meaty role. Grossbard tellingly captures Marc's tenseness, carping, and excitability, while Honeywell as Serge projects the still-waters-run-deep guy, though not so deep that the waters don't boil up on occasion. Yet he is argumentative, touchy, and ready to find fault in others but blind to his own. Dan Ferris as Yvan is outstanding. Of the three characters his may be the least intelligent and artistic. Ferris, though, makes him endearing: such nervous energy, such range of voice, movement, and expression. His dramatic monologue that immediately follows the intermission is stunning, when he blows his top over which of the stepmothers' names are to appear on his and Cathie's wedding invitation. It garnered him warm applause. Yasmina Reza is of Iranian-Russian stock on her father's side, and Hungarian on her mother's. A Parisian, she was born in 1968, and has written several plays in French. Her translator, Christopher Hampton, was born in the Azores in 1946, and now lives in London. He gained his M.A. in modern languages at new College, Oxford, in 1968. Among his many works is "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and he collaborated with Don Black on the book and lyrics for the musical "Sunset Boulevard." Performances are at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday through Oct. 4, with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 and 28, and Oct. 5. For more information, call 482-7532. LINKS: REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. DAILY TIDINGS: Main | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -