Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 3

4 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 1996 3 West End applauds 007's new production by ROBIN STRINGER Aits Correspondent IT looks as if Sean Connery may have a West End hit on his hands with a new play called Art( which has brought Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay back to The-atreland Connery co-producer of the show with David Pugh was one among many waxing enthusiastic after last night's premiere at Theatre which got a lot of laughs and some tears and a standing ovation at the dose was everything I could have hoped for and said Connery whose wife Micheline first spotted the play two years ago in Paris and showed it to her husband Written by French playwright Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton about three friends who fall out when one of them pays F200000 for a modem painting But it is more about the nature of friendship than about the nature of art Connery who contributed £40000 to the £250000 cost of the production always saw Finney and Courtenay as essential to the success of the project "You get the understanding that already exists between Albert and Tom and they are going to take it even he said Ken Stott (who plays the most sympathetic of the Triumphant Sean Conneiy with the play's stare Ken Stott Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney three friends) was terrific The women in the row next to Micheline were crying their eyes His opinion was shared by actors Michael Palin Richard Wilson Zoe Wanamaker Alex Jennings Fiona Shaw and Honor Blackman At the first night party in the Malta Galleries Jeremy Irons said: is a very intelligent play beautifully produced and wonderfully acted is what the West End used to be all about Jf the audience will not come to this then I give up on IJ JJ ft 0 II dl emocQDaQDass mm Pictures: DAVEBENETT First nightere Zoe Wanamaker and Ridianl Wilson A true adult comedy blooms ugly The emptiness of the canvas is paralleled by the blankness of the friendship which easily collapses because founded on superficialities Only when Serge does the non-male thing and compromises allowing Marc to disfigure the canvas is there hope of reconciliation And final gesture admission that perhaps the painting is worthwhile-underscores provocative belief that we must rely upon white lies allowing others their illusions since no one can bear very much reality That hot young director Matthew Warchus presides over a coolish not very searching production in which Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney strike up an endearing double act What a pleasure to see humourless Serge with his air of wounded self-importance gravely rising to the challenge of Finney in rather thick voice as a bluff no nonsense Marc Ken Yvan face shrouded in chronic glumness forever slipping into top-gear depression who touches comic heights and then under cellnet AT LAST that rare thing a true adult comedy with more than mere laughter on its mind blooms in the West End waste land At first Yasmina Art which triumphed in Paris and Berlin looks eager to make traditional fUn of a man so keen to proclaim his love of daring abstract art that he buys a blank white canvas for a fortune and shows it off to his two best friends with pride shining on his silly face But Miss interest lies not in the picture but the dangerous antagonisms it sparks Art is a French deliciously sharp imagining of how middle-class men relate to each other or rather how they spectacularly fell to This is no low shot aimed below the waist Miss Reza views the male of the species more in amused resignation than feminist anger First though a hurdle has to be cleared The three middle-aged French men all of whom have women in their lives talk about their relationships with each other in a way few heterosexual or indeed gay Englishmen would dream of speaking unless trapped on one of those men only deep therapy and self-discovery weekends away from home: you any idea of what binds me to is how Christopher translation ridiculously puts it when the squabbling takes a turn for the serious tarKtoantaMtymJli accaptmca of wNcti It ubjoct to iUu Appfctf to Raptor Crier Flu ML RamM bang darned £294 The scene on Mark suitably sparse and anonymous white set with its towering walls and minimal furniture is the apartment of Tom Serge the delighted new owner of an expensive painting which just consists of a white void taking the suggests best friend Marc (boisterous Albert Finney) as he gazes incredulously at the bland nothingness Ken Yvan teetering anxiously on the verge of marriage takes the role by creative lying claiming to see traces of interesting red yellow and grey amidst the white This basic satire at the expense of some modern inanities is lightly amusing But then Serge in typical male fashion comes to see the criticism of htapainting as an attack upon himself The welter of accusations are comically absurd but come thick fast and ONLY FROM THE RIGHT CONNECTION interesting interior YOUR Ratings: No stars adequate it good very good irkit outstanding Xpoor.