Discount Price: $7.50
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 792
EAN num: 9780822216582
ISBN number: 0822216582
Label: Dramatists Play Service
Manufacturer: Dramatists Play Service
Quantity: 1
Printing Date: 1999-12
Publishing house: Dramatists Play Service
Sale Popularity Level: 301826
Studio: Dramatists Play Service
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The Tony Award-winning play that focuses on the meaning of art (in the form of a solid white painting) as well as the meaning of friendship, to both the man who bought the painting and the two friends who come to see it.'
Amazon.com Review:
How would you feel about your best friend if she suddenly did something so colossally stupid, it made you doubt the very basis of the friendship? It happens in Yasmina Reza's monster international hit, Art. When an art lover buys what is in essence a pure white painting for a horse-choking sum, his best friend goes ballistic. Yet a third friend gets squeezed in the middle. Questions about the meaning of strange modern art and strange modern friendships--and how they're sometimes not all that different--fly thick in the limelight.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
I very first saw "Art" performed in London in April of 1997, and it had a profound effect upon me. I did not have the privilege of seeing it with Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Ken Stout, but I did see it with three excellent actors. Since then I have seen in it in various other venues. It is almost actor-proof and doesn't require stars.
It is a play that does not read particularly well; it is very talky, and it needs the interpretive actors to carry it along. At times reading it you feel as if this is theater of the absurd, but when you see it performed it isn't; it is realistic, but satiric.
It's a play told in very a human and particularized way about friendship, egos, loyalty, communication, esthetics and human nature. Serge buys a more than bland painting; his friend Marc says he hates the painting (partly because he wasn't consulted about the purchase). Marc is unhappy because his friend has turned on him so he seeks the backing of Yvan, a peacemaker and compromiser who says he is moved by the painting, sees or feels resonance in the art, hoping to take a middle ground between the two others.
There are speeches to the audience in which characters comment on each other. Arguments blossom out from the painting to every aspect of their friendships. Each of the three men is a different kettle of fish, and it may be their differences that kept them together.
At the end Serge makes the supreme act of reconciliation and friendship. The last lines of the play spoken by Marc are moving and telling. He presents an interpretation of the painting and the real meaning of the picture and the play may be "no man is an island."
Try to see a flesh and blood acting version of this play. The script doesn't do it justice.
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead
Rated by buyers 
-
"Art", a play written by French author Yasmina Reza (1959-...) in 1994, and translated into English in 1996 by Christopher Hampton, is quite interesting. Despite the fact that it isn't overly long, it tackles difficult subjects such as the nature of friendship and art in a rather original way.
The plot is not complicated, and revolves around three male friends: Serge, Marc and Yvan. The dynamics of their friendship is substantially altered when one of them, Serge, buys a Modernist painting without consulting with the others. Serge simply fell in love with the painting, and believes it is splendid even though it is somewhat strange, all white with some lines in a different tonality of white in the middle. Marc, his assertive friend, finds that the amount Serge paid for the painting (200,000 French francs) is absurdly large, and is offended by the mere idea that his friend Serge likes it and believes it is art. Yvan, on the other hand, doesn't mind, but his non-commital attitude will land him in trouble with both Serge and Marc.
Buying a painting, a seemingly common act, will draw the three friends into an uncomfortable debate about themselves, their relationship, and art. It will also give the reader the opportunity to take his own position in a debate that it is still going own.
All in all, I really liked "Art", and I found the ending specially good. This is the very first play by Reza that I have read, but if the rest are as good as this one, I have no doubts that I will read many more.
Belen Alcat
Rated by buyers -
This play revolves around three friends, Serge, Marc, and Yvan. All three men are educated and successful, and recently Serge has bought a piece of Art featuring white diagonal lines across a white canvas. Serge is very pleased with his expensive purchase, however Marc has different sentiments. They each confer with their mutual friend Yvan, and again with each other and eventually all together. Disagreements over whether or not the art is any good, or even art at all, begins to divide the friends.
What makes this play incredible is the way Yasmina Reza captures the subtle human attitudes and emotions that are hidden in our language and the way we interact with one another. To just hear a story about three friends who disagree about the quality of a piece of art would be a bore, but when it is told with the kind of sharp and realistic dialogue that Reza has written, it comes alive. Reza creates an intimacy between the audience and her characters by assigning all three characters short soliloquies throughout the play, so we as readers/an audience understand what each man is thinking as they interact with each other.
Anyone who has experienced a serious argument with a close friend can appreciate the realism of Reza's work. Those who are not looking for something dramatic can also appreciate the dark humour that present throughout the play. I would recommend this play to just about anyone.
Rated by buyers -
"Art," the play by Yasmina Reza, has been translated into English by Christopher Hampton. The back cover info notes that the play ran in Paris beginning in October 1994 and received its British premiere in 1996.
This 3 character play is about a trio of friends: Marc, Serge, and Yvan. As the play starts Serge has infuriated Marc by buying an all white painting for a huge price. Yvan gets caught in the middle as the three argue over art, the role of the artist, being "modern," personal identity, and relationships.
This description of the play may make it sound a bit like a "Seinfeld" episode. It's an intriguing and witty play. I've never seen it performed, but because it seems to rely so heavily on the presence of a central prop, "Art" may lose some impact as a pure readers' text (not unlike the situation with August Wilson's play "The Piano Lesson"). Ultimately the drama builds to a powerful conclusion. It's a thought-provoking play; I especially recommend it to those who wonder about the nature of art and its role in our world today.
Rated by buyers -
This is an exciting play about friendship and art that moves along at an animated pace from start to finish. As I started reading the play, I had an immediate positive reaction to it, and was swept along by its delightful dialogue. While the play does deal with the question of "What is art?" it does so in a humorous (not pedantic) way through the characters' relationships with one another. The ideas about art are explored in the context of friendship, and ulitmately, I think, the subject of friendship is central to the play. Reza explores the idea: Are we who we are as defined by others, or as defined by ourselves; and further, do we value friendships based on our definition of who the other person is, or on the other person's definition of him or herself? The ideas Reza explores are somewhat reminiscent of Sartre's play "No Exit," but don't make too much of the comparison, since Reza's style and approach is very different, and the situation in which the characters find themselves is a realistic one. Anyone who likes plays about ideas and plays about character will enjoy this fresh, witty play.
Find other books like this one:
