The Nuances That They Bring
Posted by Martha Lavey on 3/20/2009I saw our production of Art this past weekend with our new Yvan, Joe Dempsey. Joe replaces K. Todd Freeman, who has stepped out, as planned, to continue his rehearsals for The Tempest. John Procaccino played Serge, as he has thus far, with Fran Guinan playing Marc. On Tuesday, our cast changes again: Joe will continue as Yvan; John switches roles to play Marc; and Randall Newsome (whom you saw as Nicky in our production of The Seafarer) comes in to play Serge. During the course of the run, the cast will change again: John will leave the show, Ian Barford will come in for him as Marc, and Randall and Joe will continue in their roles as Serge and Yvan respectively.
Seeing the play with different actors in the roles is really interesting and a lot of fun. All of these guys are terrific actors and all of their performances are shaped by our director, Rick Snyder, so that the thrust of the production remains true. But the nuances that they bring to each role, based on their own personalities and how their imaginations occupy the characters, are highly expressive of the way in which plays are living things. What I love about the fact that our production is moving and re- adjusting as it passes through the hands of these actors is that those shifts and changes are part of the message of the play. Friendships change–we become different people over the course of our relationships–and the play expresses some of the discomforts and revelations that obtain from those changes. Can we maintain a friendship when we are compelled to recognize change in ourselves or the other?
The post-show conversation I conducted on Sunday was really interesting. A couple of the men in the audience expressed how unusual it was to hear men speaking so directly to their feelings and to their vulnerability in their friendships. One gentleman remarked that he had never seen a male friendship survive the kind of conflict that happens in the play. He said he could imagine a friendship between women enduring the rift but could not imagine men remaining friends after a conflict of the intensity that happens in Art. I wonder what you think about that and I wonder if you have ever had a long-standing friendship end in conflict. Was it recoverable? If so, was it better or worse for the crisis?
On a separate note, there was an interesting article about Art’s playwright, Yasmina Reza, in the March 16 issue of The New Yorker entitled Nowhere Woman.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:10 am
the only kind of relationship i’ve had to survive a rift the magnitude of what happens in Art is the relationship with my family. as we all know, a family squabble can be a knock down drag ‘em out kind of fight, but in my case it seems that we always find a way to reconcile. with that in mind, the way these men come back together at the end of Art makes me think that they are truly family to each other. i think it’s no mistake that their literal family is referred to so much off-stage. i think this is a nod the playwright makes to the fact that these men include each other in their consideration of family.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Justin–yes, they talk about family, but I think it’s notable that the family members of whom they speak are women. I think gender is a big issue in the play. I think Reza is getting at something that is specific to male friendship. (Sometimes in a post-show discussion, the participants take up the question of how the conflict would be different were these female characters.) I suspect that the men in this play have treasured their friendship precisely because it has not, up to now, invited the same conflicts they experience with their women…
March 25th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Or could it possibly be that these men greatly value being differentiated from the women in their lives? One of the lowest blows given in the play — or at least it really seemed to register in Fran’s performance the night I saw it — was when Serge told Marc that he didn’t like his wife. I wish I could remember a quote! (I can’t.) I think it was some comment about thinking she was rude or boorish or something. I remember it becoming very clear in that exchange just how much Marc valued his identity with his male friends as separate from that with his wife. Obviously it’s a sticky topic, but yes, through the lens of gender it’s very clear how much these men consider each other family — distinct from their women — and how meaningful (maybe even painfully?) it is to Marc to have Serge’s opinion of him lumped in with Serge’s opinion of his wife. Each of the men try so hard to differentiate themselves from their women when they are around each other. In fact Yvan’s attempts to do so are hilarious!
All of this talk makes me want to see the new cast!