‘Art’ for art’s sake

So far, art has played a centerstage role in two Repertory Philippines productions helmed by New York-based, UK-trained Filipino director Victor Lirio.

With Harold Pinter’s Betrayal last year, it was Pacita Abad’s prominently displayed vertical mural “Paris in the Fall” that inspired Lirio’s women-oriented retelling of Pinter’s London-set play.

For REP’s staging of Yasmina Reza’s Art this June, it’s a famously white painting by obscure artist Antrios with a 200,000 franc price-tag. Dermatologist Serge proudly shows off the monochromatic work hanging in his Paris apartment to Marc—much to his shock and outrage— who then coaxes their friend Yvan to see it himself and mock it. Thus escalating the dramatic fireworks between these longtime friends.

The Antrios is kind of a blank slate—a white abyss upon which the three characters project their own prejudices, insecurities and fragile world views. Marc, in particular, can’t find an intuitive connection to the work the way Yvan and Serge can.

“The white painting in the actual play, the Antrios, was by a real-life early 19th century artist and it became incredibly controversial, which was why Yasmina wrote the play,” says Lirio, who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and earned his master’s in directing at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. “He was a Ukrainian artist, so I’m also delving into that world outside of the play itself, which gives Serge’s POV more meat and substance.”

Surrounding the Antrios onstage will be local works created by members of the HOPE Project, an initiative made up of persons deprived of liberty from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Lipa City. The project supports the release of PDLs who are ill, aged or lacking financial means. For Art, Lirio commissioned new artworks to surround the Antrios, each representing a different character onstage.

Like Betrayal, which wove in Filipino elements (Pacita Abad, Duterte’s rise) to its three-hander about Filipino-British characters ruminating over the past, Lirio seeks to convey some topical impact while involving the Filipino’s story abroad as much as possible. “I love the concept of impact theater,” he says. “In Betrayal, the very fact that they were played by Filipino-British actors—that, by itself, told a story, the fact that they existed on stage and looking the way they did, brown people with British accents.”

Yet he says Art is basically a story of friendship: “I feel like there’s such global political turmoil in the world, and I just feel like we need something really funny and entertaining. It’s also an opportunity to bring a play that’s incredibly well written, that delves into themes of friendship that are quite universal.”

The play is an often-hilarious look at what moves us about art, how subjective it can be, and how money, ego and the critical faculty can obstruct true appreciation. In an age where an artist can sell a banana taped to a wall for $6.2 million, such questions still stir controversy.

For this staging, he’s got Filipino-British actor Martin Sarreal (seen in Bridgerton), BOVTS actor Freddie Sawyer, and award-winning local actor Brian Sy, whom Lirio found “wonderful” in the recent Othello.

“Every project is an opportunity for me to gain deeper insight about the human condition and, as a global citizen, as a Filipino artist working in different markets, it really broadens my perspective about myself, my community and my place in the world.”