Broadway's Art Is Not Really About the Art, Says Director Scott Ellis

At the center of Yasmina Reza's scathing comedy Art is a painting: an all-white canvas with diagonal lines of a slightly different shade of white. But the play is not really about the art—it's really about friendship, said Scott Ellis, who directs Bobby Cannavale, James Corden and Neil Patrick Harris in the Broadway revival. 

Ellis sees the tension in the play as rooted in human connection rather than aesthetics. "If you don't believe that they were friends, the stakes are not very high," he told Broadway.com Managing Editor Beth Stevens on The Broadway Show. A small disagreement over the painting spirals into questions of loyalty, perception and the limits of tolerance.

He approaches the play by focusing on truth rather than punchlines. “I don’t play the comedy at all,” Ellis said. “In a really good play, which this is, the comedy takes care of itself. If you go after comedy first, you might be in trouble.”

That philosophy extends to his staging. Ellis chose simplicity, trusting the actors to carry the weight. “You don’t have a lot to hide behind,” he said. “Simple demands discipline.”

The play has also prompted him to think about his own relationships. “I’m older now, and I’ve had friendships that have lasted decades,” Ellis said. “I don’t want new friends. I want to keep focused on the ones I have—and holding onto those relationships as we all change is the real challenge.”

For Ellis, the painting is only the spark. The real subject is the fragility of human bonds. “How much can you forgive?” he asked. “If someone says, I hate something you just did, can you get past that? The play is about friendship. Can it survive?”

Check out the interview here.