Good Art is hard to find

If you can't figure out modern art, don't worry, you're not alone. Yasmina Reza's Art, being performed by the Dubai Drama Group at the Dubai Community Theatre and Art Centre (Ductac), examines exactly this issue while simultaneously tackling the complexities of friendship.

Directed by Gautam Goenka, the one-act play concerns the cataclysmic effect on three friends, Serge, Marc, and Yvan, when Serge purchases an expensive work of abstract art – a large painting of white lines on a white canvas. As the three men engage in an ongoing debate over the value of the painting, emotions run high and the conflict escalates to the point of nearly destroying a long-standing friendship.

Alongside the question of what makes a painting worthy of the term art, or indeed a price tag of hundreds of thousands of francs, the meaning of friendship and how it defines both parties runs through the play as the three men struggle to adjust to the shock that Serge's purchase has caused.

Goenka, who has been active on Dubai's theatre scene for the past six years, first adapted the play in 2004, when it was well received.

Both hilarious and sad, Art will be staged over five shows next weekend.

-- Art: Performed by the Dubai Drama Group from Thursday to Saturday at Ductac. For details on show timings and tickets, call 050 7564245 or 050 7345200

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