Probationary Theater hopes its ‘Art’ is in the right place

Probationary Theatre will be bringing Yasmina Reeza’s 1998 Tony award-winning comedy “Art” to Seoul starting this weekend.

The 80-minute play follows three male friends, Yvan, Marc and Serge, whose friendship is tested when Serge purchases a piece of art for an astronomical sum.

The art in question is a white canvas with a white background and a white diagonal line on it.

Director Desiree Munro said one of the reasons for choosing the play was its universal appeal, even when performed in different languages and countries.

White Box Theatre Co-owner, Liam Mitchinson, said finding plays that can be universally enjoyed was important for the theatre.

“We try to choose plays with themes and humor that everyone can understand,” he said, adding that “Art” was a good example of a strong script with universal themes that can be understood and embraced by everyone.

Munro said the play was also a good example of Reza’s talent for writing about men.

She said it was rare for plays to explore male relationships without veering off into homosexuality or war and the idea that “men don’t say I love you unless they are about to get their heads blown off.”

“I think one of the reasons why that’s so hard to do is that men don’t talk about themselves, so it’s incredibly hard to write a play about it,” Munro explained.

“It’s really clever the way that she’s managed to dissect these men and the way they love each other and at the same time not seeming unrealistic.”

She said the writer established the characters very quickly, which then helped the play explore all kinds of topics.

“Suddenly all these holes start appearing in their friendship that they haven’t noticed before but were always there,” Munro said.

The play has been performed in Seoul before, in English and Korean, but Probationary says this will be the first time the play will be in English with Korean subtitles.

Munro said it had been a tricky process for their translator, Judy Kim, who worked closely with the cast to get the translation right.

“There’s a fine line between literal translation that’s faithful to the text and one that makes sense and sounds natural and is funny,” said Munro.

She said the inclusion of subtitles was much more complicated than she had originally thought, with actors having to be more careful about timing and unable to ad-lib.

But she was confident about the use of subtitles, since the English version itself is a translation ― the original is in French ― and Kim’s previous subtitle work for the company’s “Santaland Diaries” in December got a good reaction.

She said she had also enjoyed working with the small team, despite the short deadline ― the play has just three actors, who auditioned just a month ago.

“I do prefer smaller casts and I prefer working with males, I find them easier to direct for some reason,” says Munro.

Although she finds working larger casts enjoyable she says some things are more difficult to do with them: “The good thing about small casts is that you get more of a chance to work one-on-one with the actors.”

That could be very useful, as one of the actors is in his very first acting role.

“He’s making his debut in quite a large role,” she says. “He said he’s always wanted to audition but he’s been put off by being told to bring a prepared monologue or bring your resume or a headshot.”

This isn’t Munro’s approach. She said she preferred to create a level playing field, and found it difficult to assess how much of a prepared performance comes from talent.

“I want to know what they can do with the script that I’m giving them, what they can do with the direction that I’m giving them,” she said

“Art” runs at 8 p.m. on March 30-31 and April 6-7, and at 4 p.m. on April 1 and 8 at White Box Theater, near Hyochang Park Station.

Tickets are 15,000 won and can be purchased online or at the door, 30 minutes prior to show start.

For directions and bookings, visit www.probationarytheatre.com

By Paul Kerry  (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)