The curtains close on Replay

This weekend started off on Friday itself. the best kinda start they can have :)
Evam , which currently ranks among my top choice for entertainment, staged ART, their first and favourite play which was touted as a serious comedy. Now i have a bone to pick with regards to that.. but that can wait.
This play was a superb interplay of emotions of jealousy, superiority, loneliness, passion and a lot more. It explored the rift between three old friends over a seemingly innocuous "White Painting". Yussir, u heard it right.. white painting. It was a background of pure white with some faint white diagonal lines and may be lines in a few other directions too for effect. This piece of modern art is bought by an amateur art enthusiast Serge, who pays 200 thousand franks for it.. much to the consternation of his best friend Mark. Mark, who is supremely contemptuous of the appeal of "modernity" in the current day and age, sees this purchase as a evidence of his friend's attempt to ingratiate himself with the "elite" group of modern art connoisseurs. He is completely averse to entertaining even the slightest suspicion of there being a true liking for this painting in Serge’s mind. And, being the supremely arrogant person he is, does not scruple to tell Serge that he is a fool, accentuating his contempt with a sarcastic laugh that grates upon Serge’s nerves excruciatingly. This rift is highly painful to Yvan, who usually makes a threesome with Serge and Mark. Yvan sets about trying to narrow down the rift and trying to please both of them, ends up offending both. This incident of disagreement fosters more frankness in all of them, and they end up at a point where their entire relationship seems meaningless. Mark reveals that to him, Serge is a person who was moulded entirely by him, and now he is smarting because Serge’s white painting seems to have replaced him in Serge’s adoration. And Serge, not to be outdone, reveals that he has always found Mark's wife a despicably phony, condescending and narrow-minded person. Yvan chips in with laments about his loneliness and his failures in all walks of life. Then, Serge offers Mark a felt tip pen and invites him o go ahead n deface the painting according to his wish. Mark does so, and things seem to have gotten back to normal between them. Then we see Mark and Serge resurrecting the painting by washing away the felt markings. Serge confesses in an aside about how he knew that felt ink washes off. Mark has the last words.. he compares to painting to a scene where the snow is falling and a skater has just gone off the view.
My favorite scene in the play was a brilliant byplay with words.. "read Seneca" Also, the several monologues and asides in the play gave it a good feel. The characters were neatly delineated and the actors were very supportive. The impeccable timing sense of Evam was evident in this play too, lending the required force to the sarcastic retorts by Mark(Karthik).
The one thing i found disappointing about the play was the character of Yvan. Not only was it inadequately developed, some of his antics seemed to degenerate into slapstick comedy. Also, Sunil who played Yvan needs to work on his dialogue delivery and range of expressions. In that respect, Karthik was truly marvellous.
Now coming to the bone i mentioned earlier.. the phrase "serious comedy" seems to insinuate that the play was a comedy with some slight serious undertones. But this play was more of a serious subject with some slight comic elements. In fact, the play abounded in sarcasm, but i find comedy the wrong term for that. Now, ive been thinking really hard to find a term that would fit this play well. Still thinking..