June 29, 2025
Serge (Martin Sarreal) bought a painting for 2 hundred thousand francs. His very good friend Marc (Freddy Sawyer) appalled when he saw that the painting was completely done in white paint with diagonal strokes, calling it frankly "a piece of white s**t." Serge took offense that Marc was questioning his appreciation for art. This argument escalated to more serious personal insults, rocking their 15 year-old friendship as it had never been before.
Meanwhile, their common friend Yvan (Brian Sy) was in the thick of planning his wedding to his fiancee. However, because of complicated family relationships, even the matter of what names to put on the invitations was causing him a lot of stress. One night, the three friends were supposed to go out for a movie and dinner. However, when Yvan came late, even he got drawn into the brewing conflict between Serge and Marc as it reached its boiling point.
Repertory Philippines' production of French playwright Yasmina Reza's "Art" (1994) is directed by UK-based stage director Victor Lirio. Just Rep's "Betrayal" last year, Lirio imbued this production an air of sophisticated British posh-ness. This atmosphere was evoked by the immaculate art gallery-like set, created by London-based production designer Miguel Urbino, as enhanced by the lights designed by New York-based Miriam Nilofa Crowe.
The lines written by Reza, as translated by British playwright Christopher Hampton, had the razor-sharp wit as Reza's later acclaimed work "Gods of Carnage" (2006). Having UK actors Sarreal and Sawyer deliver those acerbic lines with their authentic British accents made the play's sarcasm feel drier and bite deeper. The "pissing contest" of their highbrow egos were going through the roof. Sy's more familiarly Filipino emotional acting style made us feel more sympathetic towards Yvan as he was caught in the crossfire.
However, what felt lacking for me was the sense of closeness among these three characters. I never really felt that they had that shared 16-year history which was crumbling down as they were throwing cold, cruel barbs against each other. Maybe that was the limitation of an international cast who barely had time to form a genuine friendship off-stage. I've never seen it, but I imagine that the first local production of "Art," starring real-life friends Bart Guingona, Jaime del Mundo and Audie Gemora did not have a problem with emotional connection.
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