Art

This play by Yasmina Reza revolves around three men who have had a solid friendship for 15 years and is set in Paris. However the friendship is put to the test when one of the men - Serge a wealthy doctor - indulges in his passion for modern art by paying 100,000 euros for a completely white canvas adorned with a few white diagonal lines. Marc, who has a more traditional taste in art, thinks his friend has gone mad and is not afraid to express his opinions which leads to some very frank exchanges and even violence! The third friend Yvan, who is on the verge of getting married and is having his own problems trying to reconcile his fiance and mother, tries to mediate between his two friends. All three actors – Serge (Nicholas Nicol), Marc (Alan Hollings) and Yvan (Trevor Nicol) gave superb performances handling the extremely wordy script with consummate ease whether in the form of dialogues between two of the characters, conversations between all three or in the monologues delivered directly to the audience. The play is set in the apartments of the three men all of which are in a style reflecting their personalities. Allen Perrin’s design reflected this perfectly – Serge’s minimalist in monochrome, Marc’s more traditional in warm colours and Yvan’s an almost 60’s vibe with geometric design wallpaper – all three apartments were on the stage throughout but when the action wasn’t taking place in one the other two were cleverly masked by pulling in the travellers. Being put on in such an intimate space (98 seats) - and with Caroline Nicol’s excellent direction - you felt as though you knew these characters and even recognised someone you knew – or even yourself – in them. Congratulations to everyone involved for bringing this entertaining, and even thought provoking, play to the Inverness audiences.

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