As of: February 26, 2024, 11:37 a.m
By: Nathalie Schelle
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Split
Artistic things in white on white canvas: Marc (Markus Beisl, left) and Serge (Leon Sandner, right) ask for Yvan's (Michael Grimm) art connoisseur opinion.
© Schelle
Art is debatable.
While one person stands in front of a Cy Twombly and wonders how one can make money with something like that, another is even more fascinated by it.
Art is subjective - and in the play of the same name by Yasmina Reza in the Munich Hofspielhaus production, it is the trigger for an argument that almost splits the friendship of three men.
Landsberg - Serge (Leon Sandner), Marc (Markus Beisl) and Yvan (Michael A. Grimm) have always been best friends.
But this friendship is put to the test when Serge buys a painting for 200,000 euros.
A white image with white horizontal stripes.
An Antrios from the 70s.
Serge is excited about his new achievement, while Marc is horrified: “You didn’t pay 200,000 euros for this shit?”
Shit, this insult goes too far, says Serge, and the argument between the art buyer who wants to belong to high society and his conservative and choleric friend escalates.
The third party in the league should arbitrate.
Yvan, in need of harmony and plagued by his own and private problems, wants to act as Switzerland between the two and keeps getting caught in the crossfire precisely because he wants to stay out of the argument so as not to spoil things for either of them.
A white picture triggers a dispute whose roots lie much deeper.
The trio verbally tear each other apart in the dialogues and turn their own insides outward in monologues.
Particularly convincing was the minute-long monologue by Grimm as Yvan, who wanted to tell his “friends” about the problems with the wedding preparations.
But Sandner and Beisl as Serge and Marc also inspire with their punchy arguments and the portrayal of two completely different characters who have nevertheless been friends for so many (15) years.
“Art” is the third play by the French author Yasmina Reza.
It premiered in Paris in 1994 and has so far been translated into 40 languages.
The story of the play, which was staged in Landsberg by Dominik Wilgenbus, is her own, as she tells it in a conversation for the program of the Akademietheater Vienna.
A friend bought a white picture for 200,000 francs...
“Art” isn’t really about art.
It's more about the nature of relationships with one another, in this case between men.
How much honesty can a friendship tolerate?
And how many lies are allowed to keep them alive?
Reza's piece provides food for thought and shows that no friendship is perfect.
And the acting of the three men ensured that the audience realized this in a cheerful way.