ART for art’s sake is a crafty barrel of laughs
ART has a lot of fun with the pretensions of the art world, decades after it was written and first staged.
Back in 1993 Queensland theatre audiences were among the first to appreciate the brilliance of a NIDA-trained actor who was rocketing to stardom, named Richard Roxburgh.
Alas, the then-named Royal Queensland Theatre Company’s The Beaux’ Stratagem would also be Roxburgh’s last stage play in Brisbane until ART, which opens in March at QPAC.
The brilliant comedy promises to reward us richly for waiting 33 years to see the acting legend tread the boards again. Roxburgh earned that status through an endless array of memorable and award-winning historical and fictitious television and film characters, attracting international recognition and opportunities. There have also been forays into writing and directing, which meant that theatre has understandably taken a back seat.
So, it’s no surprise that audience demand has already seen an extra show added to ART’s shortish run at QPAC’s Playhouse.
The international award-winning show by French playwright Yasmina Reza made its mark in the mid-1990s, instantly becoming a modern classic (the original Australian cast featured John Wood, William McInnes and Kym Gyngell).
The play continues to hit the bullseye in 2026 with the line-up of Roxburgh, Damon Herriman (Better Man, Mr Inbetween, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Toby Schmitz (Boy Swallows Universe, Gaslight).
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ART’s conceit is deceptively simple – a blank canvas and three friends – yet it’s a recipe for theatrical alchemy produced by the interaction of art, artists and audiences.
Over the course of 90 uninterrupted minutes the production showcases revelatory social, cultural and relational commentary framed by biting humour and realised with palpable humanity by towering acting talents.
The first few preview performances in Sydney’s 800-seat Roslyn Packer Theatre before this Thursday’s opening night have revealed ART to be the rarest of theatrical gems: a comedy that delivers sustained hilarity throughout. It’s something Roxburgh is well-equipped to judge as the co-creator and star of the outrageously funny Rake.
“This is a really unusual thing now,” he observes, “because I think it’s been so long since there’s been a play that has been just so uproariously funny from start to finish.
“Every audience is responding quite differently, but one thing that’s been universal is just waves, mountains of laughter. The force is astonishing.”
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‘It’s just an incredible piece of writing craft, so skilled … It’s also poignant’
However, it’s the truth underpinning the comedy that makes it so effective. Always up for diving into the mire of male folly, Roxburgh revels in ART’s first-hand satirical observations of “pompous asses of French middle-aged actors, their petty gripes and grievances, and the world of male friendships”. This was distilled by playwright and actor Reza while in her mid-30s (and translated by Christopher Hampton).
“It’s just an incredible piece of writing craft, so skilled,” he says. “It’s also poignant. It has substance. It’s really about a friendship being dismantled, and that makes the comedy ring out even stronger.
“But, my God, these kind of volcanic eruptions of laughter that you have to wait for – it’s just so beautiful … to feel that in an audience. There’s something special about that in a big room.
“As Damon (Herriman) said the other night, ‘I can’t imagine having much more pleasure as an actor in this life than doing this show’, which is a great thing, isn’t it?”
When the current state of the world has audiences wanting and needing genuine laughs, ART is not only a tonic for our times, it reflects them with even greater resonance than in 1994, says Roxburgh.
“As soon as I started working through it, I thought this thing is more relevant now because it’s about people entrenching themselves in their polarity, digging into their positions and not budging,” he explains. “You couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to frame the great social argument now than that.”
Roxburgh’s most recent feature film highlighted another facet of increasing extremism and misinformation – targeted attacks on journalists internationally. Recounting the false imprisonment in Egypt of Brisbane reporter Peter Greste, 2024’s The Correspondent was widely acclaimed and earned Roxburgh multiple nominations for his lead performance.
Last year he reteamed with the movie’s Brisbane-born director Kriv Stenders to add another prominent – and somewhat antithetical – Queenslander to his retinue of real-life portrayals, summoning the state’s most famous premier in the documentary Joh: The Last King of Queensland.
My mention of the actor’s understated yet effective evocation of the idiosyncratic Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen prompts thanks – and a correction: “I did do that up there so, in fact, that’s the last time I was onstage in Queensland,” he laughs.
Although local theatregoers could recognise La Boite Theatre’s distinctive stage and auditorium as the scenes’ location, they were just for the camera – so let’s call that a technicality.
ART plays the Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, March 11-22.
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