Art Review
By Dawson Beard, Skyline Editor
ALPINE - For its Fall production, the Sul Ross Theatre program delivered its rendition of “Art” by Yasmina Reza. The play tells the tragic story of a lifelong friendship between three men, Serge (Christian Sanchez), Marc (Garrison Rutledge) and Yvan (Justin Hinton), torn apart by Serge’s $200,000 purchase of a white painting.
The play is seen by some as a satire on the world of modern art and modern art collectors. Some see it as a commentary on the fragility of male relationships. I see both arguments, but the core message was clouded by an unexpectedly underwhelming product.
“Art” is a comedy, featuring multiple bouts of comic relief in a sea of turmoil within the friend group. Hinton flourished in this area as Yvan was in a perpetual state of humorous anxiety and desperation dealing with, not only the intense bickering between his two close friends, but also complications arising in the planning process of his wedding, which he is unsure he even wants to go through with. Hinton’s comic relief served well in breaking up sequences of screaming and physical violence between Rutledge and Sanchez’s characters. One really has the feeling that Yvan was trying, and failing, to play peacemaker only to get caught in the middle of the ordeal involving such pertinent questions as, “Is the painting really ‘white’?”, “Is a white painting really worth $200,000?”, “Does Serge’s seemingly preposterous purchase of this painting negatively impact the people around him?”, etc.
However, I felt that Hinton’s performance carried the show as Sanchez and Rutledge’s performances fell flat. The yelling and conflict between the two felt empty, devoid of any feeling of pure anger or hatred. Individually, Rutledge did a great job of demonstrating Marc’s insecurities and inner demons over the course of the play, and Sanchez played the part of the pretentious-yet-passionate art collector very well. But, when the two come together for dramatic scenes of anger and vitriol, the chemistry and believability is simply not there. This is a problem considering the majority of the play is made up of these interpersonal encounters between the two performers.
This was disappointing, considering the electric performances and chemistry of Rutledge and Sanchez in the Spring production of “Hand to God.” A comparatively tamer conflict, like the one depicted in “Art,” should have been a walk in the park for these two, but unfortunately it just missed the mark.
The ending wrapped up the production nicely, however. After Serge allows Marc to draw on his white painting with a blue felt-tip marker to bring the argument and dissension to a halt, the friend group goes out to dinner together. A few days after Yvan’s wedding, where Marc and Serge served as witnesses, the three friends return to Serge’s apartment to clean the marker off of the painting, working to mend their damaged friendship.
Of every Sul Ross Theatre/Theatre of the Big Bend production I have seen, “Art” was, frankly, the most underwhelming of the bunch. With such a talented cast of performers with such impressive and prolific résumés of spectacular past performances, I expected a lot more than what was delivered.
