Earlier in the week, we chatted to Damon Herriman ahead of the Melbourne season of Art the Play which is currently touring nationally, with Adelaide to follow in late May. The play performed in English is a translation from Yasmina Reza’s original French play, Art. Three friends find themselves divided when one of them, Serge, played by Damon Herriman, purchases an expensive painting by a famous artist, which essentially looks like a white canvas. The play explores male friendship, ego, and art. Damon Herriman stars alongside Richard Roxburgh and Toby Schmitz in this production directed by Lee Lewis. Read our interview with Damon below.
Damon, from what I understand, you came back to the stage after a long break for this production.
Yes.
What was it about Art or forming a trio with the other actors, Richard Roxburgh, who you were in Rake with, and Toby Schmitz, that made it the right project to return to the stage for?
I think it was all of those things. It was the play itself, which is just a brilliant piece of writing. It’s hard to read this play as an actor and not want to be in it. The roles are all fantastic, they are three brilliantly written roles. And at that stage, Richard Roxburgh was already cast and we’d only worked very briefly together in Rake, so the opportunity to work with him on stage was a massive drawcard for me. Then once Toby joined as well, it all became, kind of a perfect storm. There was no way I was going to miss out on this!
It’s hard to read this play as an actor and not want to be in it.
It’s a fantastic play. You’ve played so many psychologically layered characters on screen. What feels different or more immediate about exploring status, vanity, and insecurity live in Art?
Well, for a start, the fact that it is live, and that it’s a comedy. You’re looking at all these things like male ego and fragility and jealousies and, also a friendship that has probably been strong 20 years ago – I think a lot of people can relate to this idea that you sort of end up with friends who are rusted on who you may not make with make friends with today, but you are kind of still with them just because they’re still around, you know? The comedy that comes out of that.
It’s an incredible feeling that you just can’t get on film or TV to perform stuff that feels familiar to people, and people find hilarious, because these characters, you’re either going to recognise yourself in one of them or you’re going to recognise people you know, and then they’re just so beautifully written. The audiences are laughing at a volume and a regularity that none of us have experienced before. It’s just such an amazing thing. It’s quite a high for us really, to be on stage and have that kind of reaction. You just don’t get that with a film or TV. So, that’s really what’s special about this is, is performing something that people are reacting to in the moment and that they’re getting, and it’s affecting them, it’s making them laugh. And it’s ultimately, from what we’ve experienced, giving them a very joyful experience. It’s a nice thing today to be able to actually see this audience have just had a really great night out.
these characters, you’re either going to recognise yourself in one of them or you’re going to recognise people you know.
It’s rare to laugh as hard as I think we will when we see this.
It does seem that way. I think people are sort of surprised at how much they’re laughing. We were certainly surprised with how much they laughed. But it’s a great feeling.
The audiences are laughing at a volume and a regularity that none of us have experienced before. It’s just such an amazing thing. It’s quite a high for us really, to be on stage and have that kind of reaction. You just don’t get that with a film or TV.
I’m guessing that when you were rehearsing it, you were probably laughing a lot.
We were laughing a bit, but in rehearsals there are so few people in the room, you know, only sort of 3 or 4 other people in the room at any given time. So, the laughs are all quite tepid. And also, the laughs tend to be there for the first week. And then everyone knows the jokes so well that after that the laughs kind of disappear. So it was, it was nice to finally get an audience and be reminded how funny this play is.
Yes. And you said the audiences will either recognise themselves or someone else in one of the characters. Do you recognise yourself in any of the characters?
I think I’m a bit of all three, actually. Richard’s character is kind of the one who turns up his nose to art-wankery, and I probably have a little bit of that in me. Toby’s role is the guy that just wants everyone to get along
The peacemaker.
The peacemaker, which I definitely am. I just want everyone to be friends. And then my character, Serge, can be a little bit neurotic and anxious, and I certainly have that in me. So, I think if you combined all three characters in Art, you’d probably end up with me!
I think if you combined all three characters in Art, you’d probably end up with me!
So, you can relate to everyone! You’re playing Serge, who is often read as the friend whose taste becomes the battleground, with this canvas, which does not really have much on it, if we could put it simply. It’s essentially a blank canvas.
For the audience, it looks pretty much like a white square. Nothing much else going on.
How did you approach Serge? As a comic, tragic, self-protective? All three? Something else?
Yeah, I would say all three of those things. He’s a guy who we can get a sense that when this friendship first started out, he was probably more of a follower type and that Richard’s character, Marc, was the kind of leader of this little group of three, and they sort of hung on his every word and enjoyed his contrarian nature, the fact that he was a bit of a disser of stuff.
Photo credit: Brett Boardman
Serge is a dermatologist, over time he’s made a bit of money, and he’s now started hanging out with kind of fancy art collectors, and now sees himself as part of that little gang. And I think certainly a bit of the art wanker has rubbed off on him, but he doesn’t see himself that way. He really does think that he’s got good taste and that he hangs out with people with good taste and that perhaps his old friends just don’t quite get it. So, I think there’s something a little bit sort of tragic about Serge, but I also like the fact that he defends his right to love this painting, and who is anyone else to say that he’s not allowed to like it? That is where the play gets really interesting when he finally kind of cracks it at Marc’s negativity, and starts talking about Marc’s wife in the same way that Marc’s been talking about his painting and realises that, oh, Marc doesn’t really enjoy it when it’s suddenly something personal to him that’s being attacked.
And it’s a really interesting look about how far we can go in friendships in terms of how honest are we with friends. You know, we like to think we are, but I think we all hold back. There’s only so far you can go without being offensive enough to actually ruin a friendship.
I think we all hold back. There’s only so far you can go without being offensive enough to actually ruin a friendship.
There are obviously the moments when people have too much to drink and then they actually tell someone what they really think and then there’s the fallout.
Exactly.
Which you could very much imagine this situation happening over several glasses of wine and it coming out.
100%. In this case, they happen to be sober.
Which somehow makes it worse.
Yeah, exactly.
So, it’s a play where you’ve got the three friends that they appear to be talking about the painting, but really, like you said, they’re talking about really it comes right down to their friendship and how they’ve changed as people, and they’ve grown apart. So, they’re arguing about identity and loyalty in ways. What did you discover about Serge that surprised you?
Well, what’s interesting is that Serge doesn’t seem to have been aware of the friendship falling apart in as much as Richard’s character, Marc does. What’s interesting is that Serge doesn’t see the history in the same way. Marc’s perspective is I was kind of a leader of this group; you looked up to me, you took me around and showed me off like a trophy, and then suddenly you found a shinier, brighter object and decided to go and play with them instead.
It’s kind of interesting looking at Serge, even though he absolutely has done all those things, he hasn’t really seen it, I guess because he’s not the one who’s been hurt. He’s the one who’s gone off, and replaced the other friend.
Not just Serge, but the three characters as a whole have definitely made me think a lot about friendships that I’ve had over 20 years and there are friendships where the dynamic shifts where you might have been a follower at the beginning and, now you’re off doing your own thing, and the person who you were kind of looking up to is the one who doesn’t have much going on in their life. I can see if you were in the other person’s shoes, how that could affect you, that it could be hurtful even though even though no one’s actually done anything wrong, it’s just that that shifting in dynamic that naturally happens throughout people’s lives.
the three characters as a whole have definitely made me think a lot about friendships that I’ve had over 20 years
Yeah, people grow apart. It doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone has done anything wrong. People change their mature, their tastes change. Just like this art snob, you could say. So, you’ve worked in very intense, dramatic worlds on screen. Did Art require a different kind of precision? Particularly because the humour depends so much on timing and understatement?
Yes. For one, there’s a lot of comedy in it. And, I love doing comedy, I just don’t get to do it on screen that often. So, it was great to be able to use that muscle again. And on stage, of course, as I said, you get that immediate response, you know, whether something’s funny or not straight away, you’re not guessing like you are when you do something on screen and you’re not at the mercy of what the editor is doing. It’s either funny in the moment or it’s not. So yes, I’ve definitely really enjoyed getting to do that.
I love doing comedy, I just don’t get to do it on screen that often. So, it was great to be able to use that muscle again.
And there are some really dramatic and, there’s a lot of traumatic parts of this play. There’s a lot of pathos in it towards the end. It’s been enjoyable kind of getting to flip what the audience’s expectation is. They’ve been watching something really funny for 50 minutes or something, and then suddenly things do start to get quite serious. So, it’s been nice delving into comedy and drama in this show.
Has the director Lee Lewis taken a particular angle?
Not that she has stated to us other than just the one that’s sort of present in the page of dissecting what it means to be in a long-term friendship and how those friendships can shift.
It’s originally a French language play, and there’s also a strong French intellectual tradition of debate, bourgeoisie, behind the play. Did you find that knowing it came from the French background, shaped the way you looked at the play in terms of its rhythm, cultural tone?
Not really. You can certainly feel that in some, you know, speaking to people afterwards, often they’ll say, “oh, it’s interesting, you know, I never really seen three men talk to each other quite like this.” And then you tell them that it’s written by a French woman and they, they go, “oh, okay, that makes sense.” But when we’re actually performing – the translation by Christopher Hampton is a British translation, and it feels remarkably at home in an Australian accent. It doesn’t feel at any point like it’s set in France – we’ve kept all the French references just because there are quite a few in terms of locations and things. So, I guess I guess it’s technically still taking place in France, but we don’t set it in France in any way other than the place names that you hear.
The bourgeois anxiety does feel very French. Have you seen Australian audiences have less patience for it than perhaps French audiences might?
Honestly, no. It’s been remarkable. I don’t know why it is, but for people who’ve seen a couple of other productions of it have said this has been the funniest one I’ve seen, and I’m not sure what we’re doing, but we’re certainly not playing it.
Possibly the cast!
Well, we’re certainly not playing it comedically. I mean, maybe that’s it. Maybe we’re playing it so particularly straight, I don’t know, but we’re certainly trying to play the truth of it. But we certainly haven’t felt audiences being impatient with it. They, they’ve just seemed to have found a lot of humour. I think people just find humour in the familiarity of bickering friends over silly things and egos. The writing is just so good in that, in that way it feels so familiar. It captures human nature and friendship in an incredibly accurate way that feels totally universal. And that’s why I think this play works all around the world and has done for so many years.
From what I’ve understood, our audience are reactions can be almost partisan. People seem to pick someone that they’re backing in the fight.
Yes, sometimes people say I was on so and so’s side, but then by the end, I switched.
Did you find yourself wanting Serge to be understood or perhaps exposed as not as knowledgeable as he might pretend to be.
I think a bit of both. There is definitely some humour to be had in his defence of this painting and the fact that he says he can see, you know, various colours in it, and there’s some red in there, yet the audience is looking at a plainly white painting. There’s, no doubt that I enjoy the fact that they’re laughing at Serge in that moment.
But I also, when he makes some impassioned pleas later on in the defence of just let me love it. Believe me as your friend when I tell you that I love it. Something that upsets him is that his friend refuses to believe that he genuinely loves it. And I think he does genuinely love it. I also think he loves the attention that it brings to have spent this on this painting that is from this famous painter. There’s no doubt about that. It’s not like he’s hiding it in a cupboard. He seems very happy to show everybody.
Believe me as your friend when I tell you that I love it
And tell everyone how much he paid.
Yes. But I think he also genuinely does love it. And so, I do like the fact, and I do want the audience to go with that.
Did playing a character who is in love with essentially a blank canvas make you reconsider people arguing about art?
Well, you can’t help but think about that when you do see somebody talking about some piece of art or you go to the Archibald Prize and there are always a couple there where you try not to be that guy that goes “a three year old could have done that” but in the back of your head you’re going “a three year old could have done that”. It does make you think about all that. The painting that Serge buys is, as you know, kind of the quintessential version of that because even though he says he can see some lines on it and he can see some various colours. From the audience, it really does look like nothing but a white square, and he’s paid 160 grand for it. It does make you go well what is that art? What is art? Is it in the eye of the beholder? All those questions come up.
The play, as you said, has been played around the world, in various languages for decades now because it feels specific but also universal. What do you think makes its arguments about friendship feel so current now?
I think just the fact that they’re accurate. I don’t know how far you’d have to go back for this play not to feel accurate in terms of how it looks at friendships. There’d be a point somewhere, but I’m sure there’s a version of this play you could do a hundred years ago, and it would still feel accurate to have people arguing over a painting and over the change in their friendship dynamic over 20 years.
I think it’s really just comes down to brilliant writing. It’s incredibly well observed. Yasmina Reza clearly knows certainly how male friendships work. I think it’s specifically male – some things feel very male – but friendships in general, especially when it comes to how much you can put up with a friend critiquing your own life choices or your own taste. I think she’s just captured that so well. I think that’s why they just did a season on Broadway and why it’s done well in the UK and in dozens of other countries around the world. When we do it, it feels Australian to us, and I think that that’s a credit to her, her writing.
I think it’s really just comes down to brilliant writing. It’s incredibly well observed. Yasmina Reza clearly knows certainly how male friendships work.
What do you hope that audiences will take away after, after the performance about the play’s wit, but also the cruelty and emotional honesty?
A lot of people we’ve spoken to after the show say that it has really made them think about their own friendships. At the start of the play, you think you’re just watching an argument over a piece of art. Yeah, it’s very funny. But by the time the play is over, there are people who actually get moved to tears in some sections towards the end.
At the start of the play, you think you’re just watching an argument over a piece of art. [….] But by the time the play is over, there are people who actually get moved to tears.
The people that we’ve spoken to have said that it’s made them think about their own friendships and the friends in their life who are still there through kind of habit or nostalgia or shared history, but who, you know, if they really think about it are probably not people that they would necessarily be friends with today.
And, on a lighter level, people say they kind of come away with it saying how would you be if our best friends had come over and criticised that couch we just bought and spent a fortune on? People like to kind of delve into, well would we say something? Well, our friends just bought this ridiculous vase for so much money, and we we’re dying to tell them we hate it, but we can’t. And, you know, it really does bring up a lot of stuff like that for people.
Why should people come and see the production?
I think because they’re going to have one of the best nights out at the theatre that they’ve ever had. And I don’t say that just as a biased cast member. I say that based on what we keep hearing. We hear it during the show from the audience reaction and we hear it at the curtain call at the end. But speaking to people, I’ve lost count now of the amount of people who said that’s the best play I’ve ever seen, which is a pretty big call!
I’ve lost count now of the amount of people who said that’s the best play I’ve ever seen, which is a pretty big call!
It is a huge call!
I haven’t gone deep into how many plays they’ve actually seen, but it’s still a lovely thing to hear. I’ve met a couple of people who’ve said that’s the first play I’ve ever seen, and now I want to come to the theatre a lot more, because I had no idea you could have so much fun. So, I think for a great night out.
It’s 90 minutes, it flies by. It’s funny, it’s intriguing, it’s fascinating, it will make you think. I think most people who’ve been to the theatre have been to those nights where it can be a drag and this is one, I can assure you, you’re going to have a good time just because we’ve done 50 shows so far and there hasn’t been one that felt like people didn’t come away from it having had having had a fantastic night.
It’s 90 minutes, it flies by. It’s funny, it’s intriguing, it’s fascinating, it will make you think.
So, you’ve done 50 shows so far. Have you tweaked things along the way based on audiences?
For sure. For a start, in our very first show we did, we didn’t realise how funny it was. We knew it was funny, but we just the amount of laughter, the volume of it and the regularity of it kind of came as a surprise to us. Yes, absolutely, over the first few weeks, you end up finding new things that are funny, that weren’t funny before, and you get more familiar with everything: the characters you’re playing and some of the dramatic scenes alter as well.
That’s one of the fun things about doing theatre is you can kind of hone it. It’s not just one and done. You can constantly hone it. And I think what’s going to be really fun for the Melbourne season is that we’ve done 50 shows, but we’ve also had a month off, so it’s going to have a freshness to it but also come with the history of the 50 that we’ve already done.
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We thank Damon Herriman for this interview and cannot wait to see Art The Play when it comes to Adelaide next month!
KEY INFO FOR ART THE PLAY
WHAT: Art the Play
WHERE & WHEN & HOW
MELBOURNE : Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St, MELBOURNE
Daily except Mondays until 17 May 2026
Tickets via this link
ADELAIDE: Her Majesty’s Theatre, 58 Grote St, ADELAIDE
20 – 24 May 2026
Tickets via this link
Have you ever seen a production of Yasmina Reza’s Art?
