Trois versions de la vie (literally Three versions of life) is the
fifth play (written in 2000) by French writer Yasmina Reza. Its English
translation under the title Life x 3, premiered in 2000.
Life x 3 is a slice-of-life affair that shows three different
views of the same event. The events covered in it are seen three times over,
each instant replay viewed from a slightly different angle. To underline this
aspect of the 90-minute script, the setting of a contemporary living-room (including
a divan, a chaise, and a number of children's toys) shifts position.
The topic that Reza
raises and pretends to address in some depth is marriage. The two couples she
introduces as representatives of the beset institution are both having a tough
go. In the midst of an evening at home, former lawyer Sonia (Helen Hunt) and
astrophysicist Henry (John Turturro) cannot get their obstreperous six-year-old
off to sleep. The argument they have about the best approach to quieting the
whiny tyke, whose annoying presence is sound designer Christopher T. Cronin's
achievement, reaches a nasty peak just as Hubert (Brent Spiner) and Inez (Linda
Emond) show up for a dinner that Sonia and Henry have completely forgotten was
on the agenda.
When the four unfed
diners settle in as much as they can with a child carrying on elsewhere in the
house, they try to act as if all is peachy. They do not succeed. Despite the
flowing Sancerre, or maybe because of it, Hubert brings into the awkward
conversation a scientific paper he's learned about that might preempt a similar
article being prepared by Henry. Hearing about this, Henry becomes increasingly
agitated; he needs the paper he's publishing after a three-year lull to make a
splash so that he can get a promotion. His display of nerves provokes an edgy
response from Sonia, who disdains her husband's obsequious behavior around
Hubert. The charged 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.
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 cannot stop thinking about it.
Having hurled her
characters at each other, Reza runs the same basic scenario twice more, with
only music and lights 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
does not want to be caught; the two of them have apparently been sharing a
fling that is not 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 is 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.
