Blank canvas draws insights through ‘Art’

If some people around you laugh a little too raucously at Bar Harbor Theatre’s production of “Art,” you can assume that they are the artists, actors and painters in the audience. You can further guess that they recognize something of themselves in the very insider language that Yasmina Reza exposes in her 1998 Tony Award-winning play about a blank canvas and the havoc it wreaks on the friendship shared by three men.

Don’t be misled, however. While the play has an art-world fixation, it doesn’t stray too far from the even larger theme of how each of us is affected by the intimate relationships in our lives. Or as the play puts it: If your friend uncharacteristically buys a blank canvas by a fashionable artist for an outrageously large sum, does it change the way you feel about him? Furthermore, if all you see is a blank canvas rather than a deconstructionist’s view of form and color, is it a case of the emperor’s new clothes or are you out of touch?

These are essentially the jumping-off points of “Art,” which questions not only artistic standards but the rules of friendship and a quirky kind of guilt by association.

Director Patricia Riggin, whose work has been seen at the University of Maine, Penobscot Theatre and the Maine Shakespeare Festival, allows the three male characters in this play to be stuffy but she also pierces the surface of their trendy outer cores to reveal a deep connectedness to one another. The only real complaints for this production are that the music punctuating scenes is sappy and soft, and that the Bar Harbor Municipal Building Auditorium is acoustically challenged when the actors shout at each other, which they do a lot toward the end of the 90-minute show.

The three actors – Peter Levine (Marc), Lawrence Bull (Serge) and Andrew Dolan (Yvan) – could easily have indulged themselves in one-dimensional depictions of their characters, who are not particularly likeable. Instead, they move from the predictable into the revelatory. There are slow moments and occasional struggles with lines, especially for Dolan (who is otherwise quite entertaining), but these three actors prove that life – and art, for that matter – are not always black-and-white issues.

“Art” is a show that won much recognition as an incisive projection of art-world types and an insightful depiction of the inner workings of three men who talk about more than sports. It’s the type of show that has legs the first time you see it and seems somewhat hobbled by empty intellectualism the second time. If this is your first round with it, the Bar Harbor Theatre production is a meaty introduction. If you’re a veteran, this production will still offer laughs you may have missed the first time.

Bar Harbor Theatre will present “Art” at 8 p.m. July 3, 5-7 and 9-12 at the Bar Harbor Municipal Building Auditorium, 93 Cottage St., Bar Harbor. For more information, call 356-5987.