Stefán Karl in Life x3 by Yasmina Reza From 2002

Translated review of the play

“How would my life be if … Perhaps everyone asks at some time of the question what had happened if you had done things otherwise - responded to circumstances differently but man did; - behave like this but not queer;- see things in a different light than one did; would not let the emotions play with them the way you did. About these questions discusses a new play, life three times,by Yasminu Reza, who was premiered field of the National Theater last night. 

Cast There are four, Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir, Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Stefán Karl Stefánsson and Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir, but the director is Viðar Eggertsson. The play deals with two astrologers, Henri (Stefán Karl) and his boss, Hubert (Sigurður) and their wives their lawyer Sonia (Steinunn Ólína) and Inès (Ólafía Hrönn) Henri and Sonia expect Hubert and Inès for dinner, where a possible promotion will be discussed Henri and an article he has just finished galaxy studies, - and Now they are met, Hubert and Inès, a day before there was hope for them, and nothing in the fridge!

We may never repeat our lives; - Yes, except in the theater. “The special thing about the work is that of knowledge after the first episode supports and multiplies our experience of the second episode, "says Author Eggertsson. "The spectrum of the person will be even more. And after first and second we have much more knowledge they than they give up, and we know more about how they feel get to know them through the previous two episodes.

writer play the same way characters in the same situation, but the focus changes are in their response and emotional life towards what happens. Outcome may be the same in the end, but We are aware of the different responses of the people every aspect; - depending on daytime, - or just the way people walk out of bed on that day. Gradually it becomes more healthy and multifaceted image of the people. This has been a very fun show for us who have been working on this, and hopefully also for those who see the show.”

Plot line undercut Taken from TheaterMania

rged atmosphere also upsets Inez, a woman extremely distressed by her husband’s treatment of her at parties. Within a short time, the four dispirited partygoers are on an attack-and-defend spree. The gathering turns into a hostess’s nightmare: too little food and too much dissension.

Having hurled her characters at each other, Reza runs the same basic scenario twice more, with only Gary Yershon’s anxiety-provoking music and lighting designer Hugh Vanstone’s anxiety-provoking laser-beam effects to separate the inconclusive vignettes. Once again, Sonia and Henry are annoyed with each other when Hubert and Inez show up unexpectedly. But during the second and third go-round, Hubert becomes romantically turned on by Sonia and she’s reluctant to give in only because she doesn’t want to be caught; the two of them have apparently been sharing a fling that isn’t mentioned initially. 

Then, Sonia seems disinclined to give the smug Hubert the time of day, much less a surreptitious smooch. As scenes two and three play out, Henry is less overtly concerned about the threatening article, and the off-stage kid is less and less intrusive. The only sounds coming from the previously obstreperous Henry are muted pleasantries and the only sounds coming from the boy’s room are the soothing murmurs of a Fox and the Hound cassette.

Reza’s objective must have been to create a hard-hitting picture of marital tension. In her introductory scene, she does so with fast strokes. The first line of dialogue is "He wants a cookie” and it instantly has the audience chuckling – especially as spoken through clenched teeth by John Turturro, a master of clenched-teeth proclamation. Even Turturro’s hair seems, as always, to be clenched. Sonia’s response, “He just brushed his teeth,” touches off more chuckles thanks to one of Helen Hunt’s signature declarative readings. Reza immediately proves that she can pull an audience in: As she piles resentment on aggravation, she paints the recognizable picture of a couple running out of patience with each other and a second couple demonstrating the deleterious effects of connubial stress. In his role as Hubert, Brent Spiner is quietly unctuous. 

Linda Emond, with streaked hair and a dull brown suit (Thompson also did the costumes), is thoroughly convincing as a woman who has a run in her stockings and can’t stop thinking about it.

But what is Reza getting at by replaying her introductory scene and its unedifying variations? Beats me – and it also beat my companion and a friend we ran into as we exited the commodious theater-in-the-round. While agreeing that we’d laughed a good deal, the three of us couldn’t make much more of the play than that.

Yet the structure of Life x 3 seems to indicate strongly that Reza has something significant in mind. My best guess is that she’s showing three moderately different versions of the same disturbing scene as a tease for the audience, subliminally challenging us to examine our own responses to each of the scenes and to decide which version is the one we believe to be the episode that actually takes place. She seems to be saying that whichever one chooses implies a negative or positive attitude towards life.

Then again, maybe Reza isn’t trying at all to provoke such a response. Be prepared to laugh at – and with – Life x 3 , but be prepared also to ask when it’s over, “What was I laughing at?”