Theater Review: The Credeaux Canvas

“It’s a fake.”

The first line hangs in the air, lingering for impact.

But the painting resting on the easel stage right is the only thing in the production that’s inauthentic.

As the actors move about the stage, interacting with one another, the audience begins to feel more like they are eavesdropping on private conversations than watching a play.

Winston and Jamie are two roommates living in New York making just enough money to pay the rent and put ramen noodles on the table.

Jamie’s girlfriend, Amelia, also spends a significant amount of her “mornings-after” in the apartment, awkwardly trying to get to know Winston, her boyfriend’s best friend since childhood.

Then one morning, as a welcomed distraction from the strained and pause-ridden conversation between Winston and Amelia, Jamie crashes through the door with a plan that he swears will end their days of washing dishes in the bathtub.

Jamie is everything that Winston is not.

Jamie is loud, sure of himself, a go-getter; Winston is a quiet, brooding artist, who lacks the confidence to put his feelings into words.

But together, their characters balance each other out, and they settle on a plan to forge a nude painting of the artist Credeaux with Amelia as the model.

What boyfriend would let his girlfriend pose nude for his best friend the artist without the expectation that something heart-breaking could occur?

But the physical nudity is not the compelling part part of the second scene.

As Amelia sits, only slightly wrapped in a blue blanket from the couch, glass of whiskey on the table to her left, her emotional vulnerability takes precedence over her naked body.

The sculpting of the story is aided seamlessly by lines delivered so naturally it’s as though the actors are speaking from their heart rather than from their script.

And then there’s Tess, the art connoisseur and chosen victim for the trio’s scam.

It is not until her impassioned description of the art standing before her that it becomes clear that the painting is infinitely more than just a painting.

The truly incredible part of the production is that a cast of four can fill the stage with such vivacity and believability.

Can art capture the intricacies of the human soul? Perhaps not, but it makes a valiant attempt, the results of which stir hearts and controversy simultaneously.