A third friend is enmeshed in the growing tension and mutual accusations of betrayal as they slowly begin to see that their conflicting views about the painting reflect the pain of their mutual support system being undermined.The exploration of male friendship, complete with laughter and tears on stage as well as in the audience, is, according to one of theatre's leading practitioners, the key to Art's popularity. Frank Skinner has never acted on the West End stage before.Art is a play about friendship, but with a fair bit to say about modern art. One character buys an all-white canvas for a vast sum; his best friend reacts as if it were a personal insult, a threat to the value system they have shared. It's an un-English piece of theatre by the first French playwright to have a regular home in the West End since Jean Anouilh in the Fifties.Yet the play can accommodate established theatrical talents such as Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Henry Goodman and Tony Haygarth, and can enable stand-up comics to make their name in the legitimate theatre.

Jack Dee played two of the three roles during his time with the production. "It is intriguing to win the prize for best comedy," she said, "as I thought I was writing a tragedy."It is intriguing, too, that audiences are flocking to this intellectually demanding exploration of art and friendship with arguments over tastes in art, philosophy and interior design. The Mousetrap is one of Agatha Christie's poorer thrillers; the style of playing is dated and cliched. Art is both funny and touching, provoking both laughter and tears in the audience. The astute, enigmatic and alluring Ms Reza (helpfully embodying all the attributes a Parisian playwright should have) made a significant speech when she received the Evening Standard Award for best comedy. So it can now legitimately be asked whether Art will become a cerebral Mousetrap - a small-cast production with a single set whose reputation builds up its own momentum as a show that has to be seen, and runs for decades, the frequent cast changes being no barrier to the audience's interest.Artistically, the comparison is invidious.

Its cast changes make news, with the drafting in of the comedian Frank Skinner this week being widely reported. Matthew Warchus directed and Christopher Hampton, whose adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses Reza had seen on stage, was asked to do the translation. Three years, 1,000 performances and 11 London casts on, it has won both the Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier awards, earning the most Olivier nominations ever; and on Broadway it has won the Tony Award and the New York Critics' Award and is currently breaking all box-office records. Tom Courtenay signed up too, and the younger Ken Stott completed the three-hander. The play opened in London at the Wyndham's Theatre on 15 October 1996. Her husband, who still had pretty good contacts among the acting generation that achieved fame with him in the early Sixties, persuaded Albert Finney to take part.