Do you sometimes find yourself standing in front of a painting you believe your neighbor’s 5-year-old could have created?

Have you ever pondered the meaning of conceptual art and decided it’s either exquisitely profound or without any value whatsoever?

And would your friends agree with you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to check out “ART” — the season opener of Whidbey Island Center for the Arts 10th Anniversary Theatre Series. It’s a play that has received numerous accolades since its premiere in Paris in 1994, including the 1998 Tony Award for best play.

Lewis Carlino is directing the WICA production and is excited by the prospect of working with the three actors who make up the cast.

“It’s been an absolute joy for me to work with these three, gifted and lovable lunatics,” Carlino said of actors George Henny, Tom Harris and Jim Scullin.

“ART is a good play for their capabilities,” he added.

Carlino is a long-time playwright, screenwriter and director. He is a recipient of the prestigious New York Critics Drama Desk Award for playwrighting and earned several Academy Award nominations, including one for his screenplay, “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” from the novel by Hanna Green.

He also wrote and directed the film “The Great Santini,” which earned its stars, Robert Duval and Michael O’Keefe nominations for their performances in 1978.

“ART” was written by Yasmina Reza in her native French. It touched a nerve with Parisian audiences and sparked a national debate about the place of art in life.

According to Carlino, “ART” is a play that he calls “a dramady about three men enmeshed in what might be called a triangulated neurosis that occasionally borders on psychosis.”

As he says, “It grapples with the perennial and never-resolved question of what is art and what it is not. It is also about how this question brings to light the existential illusions of relationships.”

Cyrus, Mark and Evan are long-time friends, but when Cyrus suddenly offends Mark by buying an obscenely expensive painting, they find themselves thrust into a disagreement that threatens their friendship. Evan’s well-meaning attempts to smooth things over doesn’t seem to help.

“Newsweek said the play was a mixture of Moliere and Woody Allen,” Carlino wrote in his director’s notes. “I would characterize it as a medley, sung, at times roaringly, between Jean-Paul Sartre and Seinfeld.”

The script has been called witty, intelligent and extremely entertaining.

Whether this play is profound or just fun and engaging entertainment, it sounds like a piece of “ART” that will give islanders something to talk about.

“ART” plays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on Oct. 20–29, and at

2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22. Get tickets at www.WICAonline.com or 221-8268 and 800-638-7631.

Patricia Duff can be reached at 221-5300 or at pduff@southwhidbeyrecord.com