David Lee (i)

As I watched Yasmina Reza's fine play Art for the fourth time, now in an excellent production at the Pasadena Playhouse directed by David Lee, I realized that seeds for her God of Carnage were firmly planted in Art. The male friends mention the term deconstruction several times, referring to the changes in modern art, but what we witness is a deconstruction of their friendship to the very core, as they leash out at each other in a primal beastly nature as do the two couples in the laterCarnage. Reza was definitely thinking with more civility when she wroteArt, nevertheless, as the trio of friends make a supreme effort to forgive and get back to the comaraderie they once experienced. Forgiveness/togetherness in Art; savage isolation in Carnage. At present, relationships, depending on their urgency, still very much count in our daily lives, so we strive to keep them alive; others we dismiss for lack of importance or maybe because we simply do not like to be in the company of these other people, but, in spite of polite gestures, it cannot be denied that society, sadly, is little by little most assuredly approaching the state of negativity/nihilism expressed inCarnage. Reza's brilliant observations keep coming full speed as the prolific playwright shows every sign of accumulating a body of work that delves right into the depths of the human condition.