Life x 3

Life x3 is the fifth play by Yasmina Resa, who its probably best known for her 1994 penned hit 'Art' which ran for around 600 performances in the west end. Similar in composition to Art, the play is set primarily in the Parisienne flat of Sonya and Henri, the principal characters, played by Rhian Lally and Director David Fanthorpe respectively. Life x 3 is a contemporary comedy eluding to a social commentary on the human condition and explores three prospective takes on the same evening. Hubert, Steve Bedford, and Ines, Julie Parry, are invited to a dinner party and dependant on which take on reality you subscribe to, they are either a day premature or hosts Henri and Sonya have got the date wrong. As with Art, Resa is fabulous at creating heavy underlying tension while still keeping the narrative credible and allowing us as an audience to engage and empathise with the characters. All four actors performed superbly in presenting the piece truthfully but with equal tenacity in their contrasting characters, as each represented a diverse emotional approach in each of the three acts. I particularly liked the physical highlight of having a red, green and white theme for each act which simply accented a well constructed and delightfully realistic modern living space set. Richard Grogan lit it equally realistically while still maintaining the colour highlighted theme. It would be unfair in such a strong four handed play to highlight any singular performance, however knowing that the director stepped into the lead with three weeks to go must not go unmentioned. Neither his performance nor the direction suffered as a result and a huge debt of gratitude must be owed to Assistant Directors Pippa Bridges and Peter Shore for their help in enabling David to cover the role so commendably.

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