Verdi’s your daddy

I found myself perplexed by the way the characters analyzed every single nuance of their interactions in Interepid Theatre’s ART [run ended November 6]. As a straight white male — as are all three characters in this play — I found it to be distracting.

I figured that the playwright must not be a straight man. Turns out my guess was correct. The playwright is Yasmina Reza, a French woman. I am a fan of her God of Carnage, which is currently running at New Village Arts in Carlsbad.

Maybe French men are more sensitive to tone and innuendo, but my thought during the play was, When did men turn into women? Allow me to mansplain how straight men who are into the arts discuss the arts.

Imagine two straight men arguing about football. Now switch out football and insert art or music.

These characters never called each other “asshole” or “shit for brains” or a “fuck-tard” when it came to taste in art. I’m sorry, but as a participant in aggressive, masculine arguments about art and music I know these things happen — often.

I recall claiming that Verdi was not a top-tier composer such as Beethoven or Wagner. My adversary responded with, “You’re a fucking idiot” followed by “Verdi’s your daddy.” No offense was intended. None was taken.

The men in this play were worried about the tone each took with the other. Breeders don’t worry about tone. “Fucking idiot” pretty much says it all. No need to interpret the tone.

The character who was most masculine, Marc, was also shockingly self-aware for a man who considered a painting to be a “white piece of shit.” The issues Marc had with the other two characters were petty and trite — issues that would have never pinged on the radar of your standard urban hetero male.

Had the show been about three female friends then it would have been brilliant. As it was, I needed to suspend disbelief as these three men quibbled over the price of a painting.