Surface, Structure, and Feel
Posted by David New on 2/20/2009
If you plan to attend Steppenwolf’s production of Art, I suggest you be alert to a few clues provided by the playwright concerning the three friends who appear in the play:
1. Their professions: Serge is a dermatologist, Marc is an engineer, and Yvan is newly employed in a stationery business having worked in textiles his whole life. They are respectively involved with “the surface,” “the structure,” and “the feel.” These professions inform their world view.
2. Their art: Serge has just purchased the controversial piece of modern art at the center of the play – essentially a white canvas with subtle white lines. In Marc’s apartment hangs a traditional painting depicting a landscape seen through a window. And Yvan has a pleasing yet simple painting of geometric shapes and botanicals – notably painted by his father.
3. Their relationships: Serge is divorced from his wife and shares custody of their child, Marc is in a relationship with a woman named Paula, Yvan is engaged to be married to a woman named Catherine. Three various stages of a relationship: finished, ongoing, and beginning.
The play is deceptively simple, but Yasmina Reza layers in the indicators which help us understand the dynamics the three men are exploring.