Théâtre : ART

François Morel directs and stars alongside Olivier Saladin and Olivier Broche in Yasmina Reza?s formidable acting machine. An exhilarating, trenchant score that puts a long friendship to the test.

The three actors are old friends in life, but also artists united by shared adventures. François Morel is delighted that Yasmina Reza?s Art, a formidable theatrical score and playful machine, has brought them together once again.

A global success brought to France by the trio of Pierre Arditi, Fabrice Luchini and Pierre Vaneck, Art pits three long-time friends, Serge, Marc and Yvan, against each other after Serge?s ruinous purchase of a white painting with fine white borders. Serge, an art-loving dermatologist, and Marc, an engineer hostile to contemporary art, clash, while Yvan is above all conciliatory.

By playing out their disagreements over the famous canvas and contemporary art, the play reveals what resists - or not - in friendship, in the face of the many transformations imposed by life, and in the face of time, which moves forward and changes everything. The oratorical joust, which builds to a crescendo, examines the happiness, or rather the value, of the bond with the other, a bond that is profoundly alive, albeit shaped by all manner of disputes and vulnerabilities. "We can see that something remains? Maybe just a certain sense of humor, the pleasure of arguing and contradicting each other," remarks François Morel.

A universal play, to be sure.

YASMINA REZA

Her plays have been performed all over the world: Conversations after a funeral (1987), Art (1994), Le Dieu du carnage (2006), adapted for the screen by Roman Polanski? and garnered numerous awards, including the Molières, Laurence Olivier Award (UK), Tony Award (USA)? As a novelist, she was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 2016 for Babylone.

BY: YASMINA REZA
DIRECTED BY: FRANÇOIS MOREL
WITH: OLIVIER BROCHE, FRANÇOIS MOREL AND OLIVIER SALADIN
SET DESIGN: EDOUARD LAUG
LIGHTING: LAURENT BÉAL
VIDEO: GUILLAUME LEDUN
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: VALENTIN MOREL
SOUND DESIGN: ANTOINE SAHLER
COSTUMES: EDOUARD LAUG & VALÉRIE LÉVY

Production: Les Productions de l?Explorateur, Maison de la Culture de Bourges, Théâtre de Caen, Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar, Théâtre Madeleine Renaud de Taverny, Espace Carpeaux de Courbevoie - La Coopérative de Résidences pour les Écritures et les Auteurs, Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandie Thanks: Paris Musées and the Musée d?Art Moderne de Paris, the Vitra company