Life three times
Three times life ( Trois versions de la vie ) is the fifth play by the French writer Yasmina Reza .
action
Three times life is a 4-person piece reduced to a classic basic situation. The Finidori couple (Hubert and Ines) visit another, but by mistake one day too early, which exposes the main conflict even faster and intensifies it. In itself the question is whether the host, Henri, has his guest Hubert patronized his career (both men are astrophysicists ); However, the problem that comes to the fore this evening is how Henri deals with a message that Hubert apparently mentions casually, which may make his three-year research work, which is about to be completed, to waste . The host couple also has a child who keeps calling out to the parents from the nursery, which repeatedly causes disputes about educational principles. The confrontations and changing coalitions that develop or could develop from all this will be played out on stage in three “versions” (the original title).
The play thus emphasizes the artistic character of the theater, should appear timeless and modern at the same time, as a conversation piece largely dispenses with action and relies on the psychological confrontation of the people involved. It alternates between banality and seriousness and entertains through pointed dialogues. The assessment as a tabloid play is controversial.
Performance history
The play was translated by Eugen Helmlé on 29 October 2000 at the Vienna Academy Theater , directed by Luc Bondy premiered and developed rapidly as the perennial favorites like Reza's first major stage success Art . The Viennese production with the cast of Susanne Lothar , Ulrich Mühe , Andrea Clausen and Sven-Eric Bechtolf was so successful that the production was invited to the Theatertreffen in Berlin in May 2001. Other German-speaking theaters immediately secured the performance rights after the German translation was available. The Bondy production was often invited to guest performances, and it saw a total of 93 performances. The first performance of the French original took place on November 7, 2000 at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris. The London premiere of the play, translated by Christopher Hampton , directed by Matthew Warchus , took place on December 7, 2000 in the Lyttleton Auditorium of the Royal National Theater . The roles were played by Mark Rylance , Harriet Walter , Imelda Staunton and Oliver Cotton.
The piece is now played regularly, including in Freiburg (most recently in March 2016) and in the Berlin Vagantenbühne under the direction of Bettina Rehm .
On January 16, 2020, the premiere of the production of the piece under the direction of Andrea Breth took place at the Berliner Ensemble .
Book edition
- Life three times. Trois versions of the vie. Translated from the French by Eugen Helmlé, Libelle Verlag, Lengwil 2000, ISBN 978-3-909081-87-5 .
Audio book
- Yasmina Reza: Three times life. Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-85616-441-6
Web links
- Website for the piece by the experimental stage in the E-Werk
- Website of the Libelle-Verlag with press reviews
Individual evidence
- ↑ Source: Interview with Andrea Clausen, KlassikTreff with Otto Brusatti in the RadioKulturHaus, December 2006, Ö1
- ↑ www.drei-mal-leben.de. (No longer available online.) In: www.drei-mal-leben.de. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016 ; accessed on December 31, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Three times life - Vaganten stage Berlin. In: Vagant stage. Accessed December 31, 2016 .
