Yasmina Reza’s Art is a play that has had somewhat of a resurgence in the last few years with a storied run on Broadway starring Neil Patrick Harris captivating audiences and bringing a new audience to the show. Off the back of that Broadway success the show has come to Australia, featuring Richard Roxburgh as Mark, Damon Herriman as Serge and Toby Schmitz as Yvan.

The play was shrouded in a little bit of controversy even prior to the show’s starting, with star actor Ryan Corr hurriedly being scrubbed out of promotional materials after initially being announced in the role of Yvan, much to the dismay of many audience members who expressed their disappointment on Facebook, not being aware of this casting change. With that said, the producers did a good job to get a leading Australian actor in Schmitz in at short notice to cover the role. 

The play is one that very much plays upon the tradition of existentialism, drawing on French influences like Jean-Paul Sartre and even more broadly existential influences like Samuel Beckett. In this production, Serge, an up and coming dermatologist, has bought a painting for €160,000. The problem is the painting is just a white canvas with a few off-white stripes on it. This disgusts Serge’s friend Mark, who has come over to view the painting, only to be dismayed to find out his friend had paid so much money for a blank canvas. 

Eventually, Yvan enters and tries to smooth things over between the two friends but ends up caught in the crossfires with both friends eventually taking out their frustrations on him, leading to an almighty rift which is only barely resolved by the end of the play. In today’s hypermasculine and polarised world, the play feels increasingly poignant in its treatment of male friendships and the fragility of relationships in general being a superb character study in three male archetypes that seem all the more relevant, especially in the modern day.

Unfortunately, a play with such subtle existential themes relies on a strong vision to really bring out those themes and this is somewhere where this production felt a little bit lacking. The switch to Australian accents to try to localise the production seemed to backfire, with the actors caught between the original staging and trying to give the production an Australian feel. While Roxburgh was incredibly strong in his delivery and in his presence and Schmitz and Herriman had some strong moments throughout the production, the latter two performers struggled a little bit more in their delivery and with the lines in the play, with a few stumbles meaning that the flow was lost at times.

This meant that the themes of the play were not entirely teased out at every point, meaning that the biting satire of Reza did not always come through. This meant that the tone of the play felt slightly monotonous and repetitive as the 90 minute runtime loomed large. This is not to downplay the feat of the actors, who really did their best with challenging subject matter, but more to highlight that there was not really a point of difference in this production that made the play stand out perhaps in a way that it needed.

Overall, this is a play that is sold very much on the star power of its cast and it certainly delivered on that front, even if the production itself did not quite meet the lofty expectations set by its casting at all times. This is a play that feels incredibly relevant at this time, with exploration of themes that are really touching the Western world at the moment but ultimately the execution was just slightly off. For those wanting to see Roxburgh, Herriman and Schmitz in the flesh, this is certainly a welcome opportunity to do so. But, ultimately, the total lockout sign outside the theatre stating “no late entry – art is debatable, this isn’t” quite perfectly encapsulated the issues with this play: a production that, despite its enduring relevance, did feel like somewhat of a relic in this form.  

Rating: ★★1/2

Art plays at the Roslyn Packer Theatre until 8 March before touring nationally. For more information, click here. 

Photo credit: Brett Boardman