Imagine that one of your two best friends has bought a painting. Your friend paid $50,000 for this three feet by four feet white canvas with white diagonal lines. Would you be concerned? Upset? Sympathetic? Angry? Amused? This is the central issue in Yasmine Reza's brilliant play, "Art," about three friends, one painting and one horrible night.Despite the title of the play, its themes run much deeper than art. At its core, "Art" is a play about friendship. Reza discusses what makes us love and hate our friends so deeply and so easily. It is a sensitive play, with many subtleties and complex characters, and it is not an easy play to produce. Brandeis Ensemble Theater not only pulled it off, but made a brilliant work of art.

The catalyst for the explosion in "Art" is a white painting bought by Serge (Ben Rathbun '05), a dermatologist, for quite a large sum of money. Serge is cultured, well off, extremely intelligent and very proud of his acquisition. One of his two best friends, Marc (Jofrand Feirman '03), calls the painting a "piece of white shit," thus beginning the fight that will last the entire play.

Serge is a subtle character, one who appears calm but is very anxious deep down. Rathbun's use of body language effectively revealed his character's increasing frustration and anger. He treated the role with the delicacy it required; the result was wonderful. Rathbun's sense of timing was excellent; he delivered some of the true comic gems of the night, especially in his asides to the audience.

Rathbun also played off the other two characters beautifully, but never once wavered from his own confidence in his interpretation of Serge. It was truly a pleasure to watch him.

Marc is the antagonist of the play, unable to accept Serge's decision to buy this painting. He is perpetually arrogant, condescending and self-centered, much to the delight of the audience. Feirman's performance as Marc was hilarious, sarcastic and deliciously mean. Marc is rarely motivated to do anything unless he will benefit from it at some point, and Feirman tapped in the self-interest of the character beautifully.

At the end of the play, Marc even admits that one of the reasons Serge's purchase bothers him so much is because it means Serge is no longer blindly following and believing in Marc's own tastes. Feirman's performance was a bit too sarcastic and ignored some of the nuances of his character, but, by the end of the play, he captured Marc's vulnerability wonderfully.

The third character in "Art" is the poor, over-stressed Yvan (Yari Sigal '03), who is desperately trying to plan his seemingly doomed marriage. Yvan is pulled right into the middle of Marc and Serge's argument, acting first as a peace-maker between them and then as an active participant.

Sigal stole the show as the neurotic, nervous and obviously unstable Yvan, playing his part brilliantly and hilariously. It would have been very easy to make Yvan into a stupid clown or a helpless village-idiot, but Sigal brought out the complexities of the character. The audience is supposed to fell a deep sympathy for this man whose only tiny bit of happiness comes from his two friends, who now seem to bitterly hate each other.

At the end of the play, Serge and Marc manage to salvage their friendship. This dramatic, feel-good resolution left the audience applauding in appreciation for this wonderful production.