Art

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The events of Art take place alternately in the apartments of Marc, Yvan, and Serge. The stage directions indicate that the same set be used for each man’s apartment, with the only difference being that each has a different painting hanging in his living room. Reza uses this setting to highlight the ways in which the painting in each character’s apartment reveals key elements of his personality that differ from those of his friends. Aunque Iván es un muchacho tolerante, y eso en materia de relaciones humanas es el peor de los defectos. I would see the play professionally done, and then read it a month or so later. I think one can get a lot out of the experience in approaching it in this way. "Art" has a lot to give, but it does not give it up easily. It is not difficult to "miss the forest for the trees" with this text. She consciously makes things easy for the crew also. Her plays are all set within a single set, contain no more than four people and never include suggestions for a character's appearance or biography. "Because even if you say to an actor, 'This character was beaten up as a child', what can they do apart from say, 'OK' and then just get on with it?" Reza says. "It serves them nothing. Writing is a lot more organic than that. It's not at all intellectual."

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The text has some wonderfully funny moments, especially in the character of Yvan who is a little neurotic and overwhelmed by the intellectual capacities of Serge and Marc. I also think Yvan is the character that we come to understand the most, although he seems secondary to the other two. Sciolino, Elaine (24 August 2007). "Portrait of President, Craving Power, Enthralls France". The New York Times. Yvan, teetering uncommitedly between the two extreme positions, is also trying to prepare for his wedding. Yvan is the character in Art who tries the hardest to reconcile the conflict that has arisen between the three friends over the Antrios painting. Yvan is engaged to be married in two weeks to a woman named Catherine, and he has just started a new job working for Catherine’s uncle in a stationery business. It seems that Yvan has never really held a steady job and that he has been single for much of his life. In an aside to the audience, Yvan states that he is not the kind of person who is ever really happy. Later in the play he describes how terribly lonely he has been for most of his life.

Yvan visits Serge at his apartment, and they discuss the Antrios painting. Yvan is more openminded about discussing the qualities of the painting itself than Marc was. When Serge tells Yvan how much he paid for the painting, they both share a hearty laugh. Serge tells Yvan that he resents Marc’s response to the painting because of his tactlessness, insensitivity, and tone of smugness in expressing his opinion about it. Yasmina Reza: Please stop laughing at me, by Agnes Poirier: Independent on Sunday, 16 March 2008 [1] Marc’s sense of individual identity, his sense of who he is as a person, is dependent on feeling that his friends look up to him and follow his lead in forming their opinions. Marc is threatened by Serge’s show of independent thought and taste because he interprets this act as a personal rejection. Marc’s feelings toward his friends are thus very self-centered and are based more on flattering his own ego than on a real affection for others. Marc tells Serge, ‘‘I loved the way you saw me,’’ not that he loved Serge for who he was as an individual. Serge exclaims to Marc, ‘‘Everything has to revolve around you! Why can’t you learn to love people for themselves, Marc?’’ Because Marc is so insecure about his individual identity, he feels unloved by his friends if they demonstrate any independence from him.Reza's father was a Russian-born [3] [4] [5] Bukharan Jewish [6] [7] [8] engineer, businessman, and pianist and her mother was a Jewish Hungarian violinist from Budapest. [9] [10] [11] During the Nazi occupation, her father was deported from Nice to Drancy internment camp. [12] At the beginning of her career, Reza acted in several new plays as well as in plays by Molière and Marivaux. In monologues, Yvan reveals apprehension about his upcoming wedding, Serge is defensive about his painting, and Marc decides that he should behave more nicely to Serge. However, Serge ruins everything by telling Marc that Yvan liked the painting and by saying that Yvan agrees that Marc is humorless. Marc remains polite, but their conversation is poisonous. The three are supposed to have dinner together. Yasmina Reza in conversation with presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy on the campaign trail in Guadeloupe in March 2007. Photograph: Philippe Wojazer/AFP