CheekyChicago

I must admit that when I heard that the 2008/2009 Steppenwolf season would include Art by Yasmina Reza, I was a bit befuddled. Don’t get me wrong. I love this play. It’s quick. It’s smart. It’s pretentious, but satisfyingly so. But Art was written in 1994 – far enough back to feel dated, but recent enough to feel redundant. Reza’s newest play The God of Carnage is currently in production at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre in New York. I must admit that I felt some urban jealousy as I took my seat in the upstairs theatre at Steppenwolf. Chicago suddenly did not feel like the theatrically relevant city that I know and love.

But as soon as John Procaccino delivered the opening monologue, I forgot my cynical (but justified) reservations. The production is delightful. The gist of the plot is this: A dermatologist named Serge has spent 200,000 francs on a white painting with barely discernable white lines. His friend Marc cannot comprehend this purchase. It is unfathomable to him that his best friend, whom he thought he knew so well, could buy “such a piece of shit.” This universal conflict is what makes the play so successful. Everyone can recognize it. A friend asks for a white zinfandel at a fancy restaurant or buys a third cat or confesses her love for According to Jim. Seemingly mundane decisions can rock the foundation of a perfectly solid relationship. You find yourself thinking, “This is not the person that I thought I knew. How could I not have seen this fundamental flaw? Will I be able to look past this? Will our relationship ever be the same?!” As an astute audience member will quickly surmise, the play is not so much about art, but more about relationships. Artistic director Martha Levy says, “As they [Marc and Serge] negotiate the meaning of the white canvas, they are negotiating their assumptions about each other, and about their friendship.”

Under the expert direction of Rick Snyder, the cast is amazing, but it is rotating, so if you decide to see this play (and you should), you might not see the same stellar threesome that I did. John Procaccino, who normally plays Serge, played Marc and after seeing him in this role, I cannot picture anyone else playing it. He was perfectly smug. Randall Newsome, who is not a regular rotator, played Serge and nailed the doctor / wannabe bohemian character. His svelte, slightly scattered manner lended itself perfectly to the role. And don’t even get me started on Joe Dempsey who will be playing Yvan for the remainder of the run. He. Is. Hilarious. Yvan spends half of the play trying to placate his friends as they dramatically reevaluate their friendship and the other half having a nervous breakdown as he is implicated in the conflict. Dempsey deftly embodies that slightly nerdy, agreeable personality that you know has the potential to crack. And crack he does. His hysterical temper tantrum monologue garnered a round of applause from my fellow theatergoers.

Although a play about how one spends his disposable income is not particularly relevant these days, perhaps it needn’t be. I had an enjoyable night at a theatre that rarely disappoints, and sometimes that escape is just what the doctor ordered.