It’s often said that death brings out the worst in people; you see family’s tear one another apart over left-behind possessions in the wake of someone’s passing. But what happens when the death of a friendship is eminent? How do friends behave when the threads that bind them are no longer frayed but thinly grizzled and hardly friends at all? So much so that a singular choice— one might even say a matter of personal taste and opinion— or a disagreement over said choice,
If you’re going to call something sh*t, you have to have some standards to judge it by! A direct-ish quote from Yasmina Reza’s Art but one that I can relate to all too well; if you’re going to call something— anything (more often in my vein of critiquing, ‘brilliant, masterpiece, etc.’)— you have to have some standards to judge it by. Appearing for the second time in a decade of stage performance,
Friendships come and friendships go, and sometimes a disagreement in taste can be all the difference in the world between “best friends” and the end of 15 years of friendship. Taking a moment to dissect this concept, I’ve sat down with three seasoned veterans of the stage— Eric C. Stein, Mark Scharf, and Steven Shriner— who are currently performing in the Vagabond Players production of Yasmina Reza’s Art and gotten their opinion on the matter.
What is it that binds us to other human beings? On what do we base our friendships with others? And can something as insignificant as a disagreement in artistic tastes be the basis for ending a deep and lasting relationship with a best friend? All of these questions are answered as the Vagabond Players mount their 99th season with a production of Yasmina Reza’s Art. Directed by Howard Berkowitz,