Serge, the resolutely serious art collector among the three men in French playwright Yasmina Reza’s “Art,” is hoping that’s the case. His purchase for 200,000 Euros of a painting as white as an Orange County city in the 1960s is the catalyst for Reza’s 80-minute, one-act play, which was a tremendous hit in Paris, London, and New York more than a decade ago.

Now, “Art” has come to the Pasadena Playhouse, the city that’s home to the renowned Norton Simon Museum, and in the midst of Pacific Standard Time, the ambitious exhibition of works from 1960 to 1980 that’s currently on display at venues across the region.

Chances are good that the audience for this production of “Art” will have recently contemplated paintings every bit as odd, grating, banal, or if you prefer, exhilarating and brilliant as the one that adorns a wall in Serge’s residence. Though written in French in 1994, the play could not be better-timed for Southern California in 2012.

Topicality, which may or may not have been a happy accident, is one of the reasons that the Pasadena production of “Art” is a gift to theatergoers. More important is the assuredness of the production, led by the performances of Michael O’Keefe as Serge, Bradley Whitford as Marc, who dismisses the painting with a four-letter word that in English ends in “t,” and Roger Bart as Yvan, the neurotic groom-to-be who drifts from Serge to Marc and back again like an independent voter trying to pick a presidential candidate.

The way these three stake out their territory on the stage, using their posture as much as their words to assert the rightness of their opinions, offers a riveting interpretation of the male quest for respect.

O’Keefe, the tall one, deploys his height as a weapon, cocking his head skyward, at a half-angle, while he absorbs what he regards as the ill-informed opinions of his less than sophisticated friends. Still, you get the sense he’s been through this before, and will submit to it again: Friendship need not be always sweet and supportive in order to persevere

Whitford is the brawler, prepared to cross imaginary lines – physical and psychological – to either make a point or avenge an insult or mild putdown. When he’s bothered or hurt, the character’s tense stance, dry, mocking laugh, and bitter look suggest the guy at the bar whose day did not go so well. Bart’s Yvan is hilarious whether experiencing another bout of screechy, breathless hysteria, much of it occasioned by his pending marriage to the wrong woman, a more traditional source of male angst than the presence of a provocative painting, or when casually contradicting his own previously unassailable view of that same white-covered artwork.

Bart flawlessly handles Yvan’s frenetic monologue – which runs several minutes -- about the inanities of his family and family-to-be. The speech reminded me of Lucky’s outburst in another play written in French, “Waiting for Godot,” although Reza, unlike Beckett, is constructing a character rather than satirizing a “type.”

Director David Lee maintains the ideal pace for a play that slowly and confidently builds momentum throughout its one hour and twenty minute running time. Tom Buderwitz’s set design has the familiar metallic, minimalist interior that continues to seduce cool urban professionals in the great cities of Europe and America. In Costume Designer Kate Bergh’s memorable outfits, it’s not so much clothes as their colors that make the man; the bright purple shirt worn by Serge, Marc’s aggressive red tie, and Yvan’s uninspired olive green ensemble.

“Art” runs at the Pasadena Playhouse through February 19th. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. The theater is located at 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena. Tickets range from $29 to $59; with premium seats available for $100. Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at (626) 356-7529 or going online at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.