I've no wish to sound ageist but the new cast in Art, celebrating its fourth West End birthday, at times makes nonsense of the text. When Warren Mitchell's Marc announces he's an aeronautical engineer you begin to wonder, not for the first time, about the reliability of the French aircraft industry. Even the revelation that he has been friends with John Fortune's Serge for 15 years prompts speculation that they might have met on the Gallic equivalent of a Saga holiday.
It has always struck me as a modern version of Molière's Misanthrope, and it says much for Yasmina Reza's play that it survives the arrival of such mature performers. Serge's purchase of an expensive, supposedly monochromatic painting becomes a springboard for a battle between truth and hypocrisy. On a third viewing, it also reminds me of the French definition of marriage as "égoïsme à deux". Marc is a domestic bully and tyrant of taste who is deeply wounded by his chum's declaration of independence. Serge goes into a prolonged sulk when his assertion of freedom is decisively rejected. Like The Odd Couple, this is a piece in which male friendship acts as a metaphor for heterosexual marriage.
The best part, however, remains that of the conciliatory man-in-the-middle, Yvan. Even though it's a little hard to believe in Ken Campbell as a mother-dominated bridegroom, his performance is genuinely hilarious. Employed as a stationery salesman, he announces, "I'm groping my way into the world of vellum" as if it were some arcane, masonic mystery. And when Serge goes off the deep end, Yvan wildly parodies him by covering his head with a pullover and capering around like Jonathan Miller essaying a Shakespearean loon in Beyond the Fringe.
Campbell is the star of Jennie Darnell's re-creation of Matthew Warchus's original production. But, although the current cast brings a wealth of experience to the play, I think next time they should go for three actors who are in the first flush of middle age.
This cast appears until January 21. Box office: 020-7369 1736.
