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Disclaimer:
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Peer Reviews Walden Theatre's Alumni Company presents Reviewed by Cory Vaughn Entire contents are copyright © 2009 Cory Vaughn. All rights reserved. The play is in its own way as minimalist as the white painting to which the title refers; and yet, also like that questionable piece of art, it contains many hidden dimensions for those who care to look and listen. Walden Theatre's 2009 Alumni Company Summer Stock Festival opened last night with Art, French playwright Yazmina Reza's Tony Award-winning seventy-minute argument between three friends of fifteen years over the purchase of a highly experimental (or highly pretentious, depending on which character's view you take) 5x4 white painting. Serge (Adam Brown), a dermatologist with an avant-garde sensibility, drops 200,000 francs on it to the horrification of his friend Marc (Ben Park), an engineer with more classical tastes and a massive ego. Serge, for believable-enough reasons, actually loves the painting; Marc makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he hates it; and their friend Yvan (Elliot Cornett), a salesman whose upcoming wedding is about to put him in an early grave, tries desperately to keep the peace between them, which only annoys both of his friends even more. It is a complex piece of work, but the three young Walden alums onstage, under the direction of veteran Lucas Adams, pull it off surprisingly well, particularly in the funnier moments. Park, a freshman at Northern Illinois University, actually looks and sounds a bit like Alan Alda, who first played Marc on Broadway, and in one of the rare tender moments, actually manages to make us forget what a condescending ass Marc has been up to that point. Cornett, currently interning at Actors Theatre, utterly nails Yvan's famous, show-stopping monologue midway through and is in fine voice throughout. Brown, a sophomore at DePaul, proves himself a marvelous straight man in the role with the most subtlety and the fewest punch lines, and does nonetheless have one of the funniest one-liners of the evening, in this critic's humble opinion (I'll give you a hint; it comes right after the aforementioned monologue by Cornett, and the enthusiastic applause which inevitably follows it). The highest praise I can give these talented young actors is that they have truly made Marc, Serge, and Yvan equally right and equally wrong for perhaps the first time. Both on Broadway in 1998 and at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2002, audiences (including this critic in the case of the ATL production) were squarely behind poor, put-upon Yvan as the antagonists Marc and Serge spiraled further and further downward into an ever-deepening quagmire of ego, resentfulness, and pretentiousness and dragged him along to torture on the way down. Here, I found myself taking all three sides at one time or another, which made it much more interesting for me. On the other end of the spectrum, my biggest complaint is that none of these gentlemen seem comfortable enough in their roles yet to know what to do with their hands; Park's hands, in particular, spend too much time in his pockets or folded across his chest. Impressive as the performances are, I think they would be even more effective if the actors were a little more relaxed. The acerbic comedy-drama plays out in a black box auditorium on a single elevated wooden square with only a stoop separating audience from actors. The set is an area rug, a sofa and chair, an end table with a conveniently placed bowl of olives which will come into play, and an easel, which, at last night's performance, seemed at times to have a mind of its own (as did the clumsy red dust cover on the sofa). These five pieces of simple furniture are meant to represent all three men's apartments, but they were clearly chosen for utility out of the company's stock, as the style of the décor doesn't really fit any of the characters (well, maybe loser Yvan, but certainly not Serge, and most of the play takes place in his house). The clashing personalities of the antagonists are more accurately reflected by the three different artworks that occupy the easel. The 2009 Alumni Company Summer Stock Festival continues later this month with Harold Pinter's Betrayal, and concludes next month with Craig Wright's The Pavilion. Both ambitious works, but then so is Art, and they've done a remarkable job on it, particularly for actors so young. NOTE: The play contains adult language. Parking is available on the street.
Art Remaining performances Fri. July 10 and Sat. July 11 Starring: Adam Brown, Elliot Cornett, Ben Park
Posted July 10, 2009
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