Cesear's Forum to Present Yasmina Reza's LIFE X 3

A theatrical triptych, LIFE x 3 offers three variations on the same event: a dinner party gone awry. Unforeseen circumstances combine with unexpected comic and not so comic responses. The repetition and changes in each episode reflect on individual personality with consequential choices inevitable in life decision-making.

Known for her satiric wit, Yasmina Reza's LIFE x 3 provides a degree of sophistication within an amusing party game-like replay structure. Regret begs the question of "what if..." Ms. Reza, who has achieved critical and popular international success, is quoted as saying "theatre is a mirror, a sharp reflection of society." Her best known works, ART and GOD OF CARNAGE, provide amusing, piercing reflection.

Cesear's Forum, Cleveland's small professional "minimalist" theatre company, will present LIFE x 3 in its limited area premiere engagement: late September through October at Kennedy's Down Under, Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio.

Cesear's Forum continues to present works of social commitment and theatre experimentation, most recently presenting a performance benefit of Eugene Ionesco's THE LEADER. Ms. Reza's work Dawn Evening or Night, written after a year of following the campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy caused a sensation in France. She has described him as an egoist driven by "a childlike search for approbation." Given the current political climate, Cesear's Forum views LIFE x 3, written in 2000, as "au courant." Yasmina Reza's THE UNEXPECTED MAN was presented by the company in May 2007. Cleveland Theatre Critic Tony Brown wrote: If you like your theater clean, spare and mysterious, your plays short and punchy, and your mind toyed with occasionally, THE UNEXPECTED MAN will keep you guessing, and thinking, and laughing..." Indeed, Ms. Reza writes as "a wryly interested observer," (she was raised in France by a Jewish Russian-Iranian father and Hungarian mother) with a unique perspective that has proven to have an international resonance. In addition to plays, novels and screenplays, Ms. Reza appeared as an actress professionally. She notes than in production collaboration of her work, interest is less about meaning than instinct and one might conclude that instinct informs her characters' visceral behavior.

The Cesear's Forum 90-minute production will follow the playwright's intended use of a minimalist setting by Michael Larochelle that allows the audience to focus on and identify with the character driven narratives.

With lighting by Andrew Kaletta , costumes by Aimee Kluiber, the production will be staged by Artistic Director Greg Cesear. The cast includes: Tricia Bestic, BrIan Bowers, Dana Hart and Julia Kolibab.

The production is sponsored, in part, by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Yasmina Reza's LIFE x 3 (translated by Christopher Hampton): September 22nd through October 28th, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Two Sunday Matinees at 3 pm on October 8th and 15th, Kennedy's Down Under, Playhouse Square, 1501 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. Call 216-241-6000 or visit www.playhousesquare.org. Ticket price is: $18. Visit www.cesearsforum.com for more information.

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