Art

This truly is the winter of our discontent. Or at least the winter of French playwright Yasmina Reza characters' discontent. First came her Tony-winning "God of Carnage" at the Huntington, followed days later with the film version (shortened to "Carnage") opening in multiplexes; and now "ART," her earlier (1996) Tony-winning Best Play, comes to the New Repertory Theatre. In both these plays, there's a lot of entertaining arguing going on.

"ART" is ostensibly about the reaction Marc (Robert Pemberton) and Yvan (Doug Lockwood) have to their friend Serge's (Robert Walsh) purchase of a very expensive, very white modernist painting. Marc dismisses it ("a piece of white shit,"), and snipes at what he sees as Serge's newfound sense of superiority, which only angers Serge. As the argument builds (the complacent Yvan is dragged into it as well), the play becomes more about friendship, what it says about our choices in friends, and our self-worth derived from those choices.

Walsh and Pemberton get the comedy rolling early with some priceless sideways glances and head tilts as they assess both the painting and each other's reactions to it. But as with "God of Carnage," the fun really starts when people stop being polite and start fighting. The duel becomes a round robin as Marc and Serge pull Yvan into the argument, each assuming Yvan will take his side, then ripping him to shreds as he fails to meet either of their expectations. Doug Lockwood is a sweetly pitiable Yvan and nicely treads the fine line between being a peacemaker and just being spineless.

For every well-aimed verbal barb or well-turned phrase, Christopher Hampton's translation of Reza's original French play floats a lead balloon of too-formal phrasing. Lockwood is saddled with the worst of it with an almost Shakespearean soliloquy that director Antonio Ocampo-Guzman has him deliver literally kneeling in supplication, which only serves to underscore the awkward melodrama of the moment.

Luckily, Lockwood also gets the best moment: a monologue about Yvan's very bad evening of wedding planning involving his fianc�e, mother and an assortment of step-mothers. It's Reza at her best... putting a mirror to the worst side of human nature: petty, weak-willed, egotistical, insecure, wounded, and out to hurt others. Lockwood delivers it perfectly, bringing it to a crescendo where he's reduced to a gibbering idiot.

Ocampo-Guzman balances these larger moments with quiet seething from Walsh and Pemberton, as their characters question what they see to be the changing nature of a person whose opinion they once admired. When did this man lose his sense of humor and how has his taste so appallingly turned for the worse? And, more importantly, how does this current lack of judgment reflect on me? Does it call my own taste into question or, worse, does my friend's bad taste extend to bad taste in friends?

In some productions of "ART," the audience never sees the painting in question, but in the New Rep production we get just as good a look at it (as we do at the classical landscape in Marc's home and the mediocre motel art that graces Yvan's new place). That all three men's living rooms are the same beige-toned set, hovering in a pool of dark carpeting, with only a change in art to indicate a change in place, serves to underscore both the friends' similarities and differences. Scenic and lighting designer Justin Townsend uses smartly placed spots to isolate the artwork and each actor when they deliver their characters' internal monologues. Sound designer David Remedios adds to the peek inside each man's head by giving them musical themes suited to their personalities.

"ART" does have some stumbles (when the characters briefly cross the line from verbal to physical attacks, the action starts feeling forced), but the believable tension between old friends and the uneasy truce of the denouement from this strong cast makes for a satisfying night at the theater.

"Art" continues through February 5, 2012 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown. For more info you can go to the company's website.