Catch Tony-Winning Comedy ART Next Wednesday in Beijing

Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning comedy ART is coming to Beijing with a twist! Directed by Donnie Fan, ART will be showing at Nanyang Theater on Aug 20 at 7.30pm.

Originally premiering in 1994, for those unfamiliar with the play, ART is a comedy that centers on three long-time friends: Serge, Marc and Yvan. When one of them indulges his love of modern art by buying a large, expensive, completely white painting, it sparks a hilarious and painfully honest debate that unravels years of friendship.

The comedy raises questions about taste, pride, and the fragility of friendship. One man's modern art purchase becomes a lightning rod for old grievances, unspoken judgments and shifting loyalties. Another friend is horrified, unable to fathom why anyone would spend so much on “a completely white painting.” The third, caught in the middle, tries to keep the peace – only to find his diplomacy makes everything worse.

Now, here comes the twist: In this production of the play, the three friends are swapped for an all-female line-up, with the characters switching to Sylvia (Serge), Yvonne (Yvan) and Mary (Marc). 

We reached out to Fan to find out why he decided on ART as his latest project, and he told the Beijinger: “LOW BUDGET! (laughs) But honestly, one of the great things about ART is how simple its physical requirements are. The main ‛prop’ is basically a whiteboard. At its heart, Yasmina Reza's ART plays with our expectations of ourselves and of other people and the mess that can create in our relationships. I don't think there's a human on the planet who can't relate to that. In today's climate, where people are quick to explain their own behavior – or judge others – through frameworks like MBTI (Myers–Briggs Type Indicator), the play still feels as relevant now as it did in the '90s.”

Fan also shared with us why he chose to recreate the play with a female lineup, saying: “Shifting the roles to women offered a completely fresh lens on the dynamics at play. The original male characters have a certain rhythm and energy, but when those same lines and situations are voiced through female friendships, the tensions, humor and vulnerabilities land differently. There's a subtle recalibration in how conflict unfolds, how pride is expressed and how reconciliation is reached. It's the same play, but the emotional temperature shifts in really intriguing ways. I wanted audiences to see how universal the themes are, while also appreciating the nuances women bring to these roles.”

We were curious if there had been any other Beijing-specific changes, and Fan told us: “We really tried not to change anything outside of the pronouns, but we did make one big visual shift. The original play takes place in a living room; we're performing it as if it's on an outdoor patio with a serene Chinese hanfu (汉服) backdrop. That change wasn't initially a creative decision – it was a necessity because our theater is currently hosting another production and we couldn't alter the existing set. But it turned into an opportunity. It's given us space to play with movement, physicality and non-verbal communication in new ways, and I think audiences will enjoy how we use the environment.”

In the play, Xixi plays Sylvia, Yiyi plays Yvonne and Zoe plays Mary. We asked each actress what they felt was easy to connect to and what was difficult to adapt to for each of their characters.

Xixi: “Easy: being pretentious and wanting to lecture people. Difficult to jump into: having to make fewer moves when talking.”

Yiyi: “Easy: playing a character who is always trying to smooth things over and doesn't care about what's happening around her but tries to be understanding of everything (even if it's something very weird). Difficult to jump into: playing a character that can be highly emotional and has a lot of anxiety.”

Zoe: “Easy: playing a character who finds people stupid. Difficult to jump into: finding a physical outlet for the need to control everything; channeling the deep, ground-shaking frustration and anger she feels toward her friends when they are called upon; and balancing the natural witty, straight humor with the willingness to keep listening to idiotic responses.”

The comedy will be performed in English with Chinese subtitles and is for anyone who has ever defended a terrible purchase, pretended to “get” abstract art, taken a joke too seriously, or lost a friend over something stupid. 

While the laughs are sure to come quick, ART isn't just an evening of punchlines, though. It's an intervention disguised as a girls' night out – a reminder that inside jokes expire, middle-aged friendships are decades-long improv scenes, and sometimes the people we love most are the ones we clash with hardest. You can see details on tickets below. 

ART will be showing at Nanyang Theatre on Wed, Aug 20, at 7.30pm. Tickets are RMB 100-330 and can be purchased by scanning the QR code in the poster above.

Nanyang Theatre
6 Nanyang Hutong, Dongcheng District
东城区南阳胡同6号

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Images: courtesy of Donnie Fan