These two questions contemplate the core concept of the 1990s comedy and Tony award winner for best play, Art:

“Are you who you are because you are who you are? … Or, are you who you are because I am who I am?”

The plot of Art has a man buying an all-white painting and the fact that his friend cannot accept that he has done that.

Yes, the play is somewhat about modern art. What is art? Is an all-white paining with a few white lines truly a piece of art, or with a $30,000 price tag, isn’t it just a scam?

But what’s primarily at the heart of this play is the question: How do you remain friends with someone when that friend is behaving in a way that you find ridiculous, objectional, and just downright stupid.

When I originally saw this play about five years after it premiered, I thought it was hysterical, but I didn’t realize it would become a harbinger of the times we currently live in. Unfortunately, its significance to our modern culture has increased as the years have passed.

I think in our current political climate we all have been force to ask questions about people who are very close to us, and who we love. Those questions revolve around the choices they are making with their votes and with the ideas they support, and these things make us wonder if we can remain friends with them. How do you stay friends with someone when they’re doing something that you find unreconcilable to the foundation of what you believe your relationship with them is built? When people change, when we ourselves change, how do we adapt our friendships? This is at the heart of this play.

Oh, and did I mention it’s a comedy? It is one of the funniest new plays written in the last 25 years.

This very funny play features Aaron Robertson as Serge, the buyer of the painting; Aaron Mann as Marc his friend who can’t believe he has spent $30,000 on a piece of “art,” and Nol Beckley as Ivan, the friend caught in the middle who wonders what the big deal is, and why they can’t all just get along like they used to.

Art previews Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 pm (all seats $12 — no presale — available at the door). The play then runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. from Oct. 11 through 26, with one Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. on Oct. 20.

Tickets are $20 general admission, $18 for patrons age 65+, and free for the first 30 full-time students per performance who make reservations. All seating is festival seating (first come, first served) and doors will open 30 minutes prior to curtain.

To reserve a ticket call the Box Office at (260) 426-7421 ext. 121. The hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and one hour prior to every performance. Or you can call another time and leave a message and we will call you back.

You can also buy tickets, as well as find out all about FPT, by going to our website, firstpresbyteriantheater.com.