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Plays 1: 'Art' / Life x 3 / The Unexpected Man / Conversations After a Burial
Now in one volume, the works of "the most successful international playwright of her generation" (Vogue).
Yasmina Reza's plays reflect the razor sharp wit, social commentary, and impeccable comedic timing that have earned the praise of critics throughout the world, none more so than the Tony Award-winning Art, an eccentric and clever play of ideas that took the American theater community by storm. In this sly critique of contemporary relationships, Reza skillfully picks apart the friendship of three men via a bowl of olives and a white-on-white painting. Now translated into more than 30 languages, Art continues to be performed worldwide, even as Reza's other plays have garnered similar acclaim. Life x 3, Reza's most recent offering, again highlights her satirical wit as two couples face off in three different versions of the dinner from hell. Praised as "compact, cool and clever" by Christopher Isherwood of Variety, Reza uses the acidic exchanges of her characters to illuminate their inner desire for love and acceptance. Also included in this edition are two earlier plays, The Unexpected Man and Conversations After a Burial. Each elucidates the startling difference between public and private life, be it in the confines of a train compartment or a country estate in the aftermath of a loved one's passing.
Yasmina Reza's plays reflect the razor sharp wit, social commentary, and impeccable comedic timing that have earned the praise of critics throughout the world, none more so than the Tony Award-winning Art, an eccentric and clever play of ideas that took the American theater community by storm. In this sly critique of contemporary relationships, Reza skillfully picks apart the friendship of three men via a bowl of olives and a white-on-white painting. Now translated into more than 30 languages, Art continues to be performed worldwide, even as Reza's other plays have garnered similar acclaim. Life x 3, Reza's most recent offering, again highlights her satirical wit as two couples face off in three different versions of the dinner from hell. Praised as "compact, cool and clever" by Christopher Isherwood of Variety, Reza uses the acidic exchanges of her characters to illuminate their inner desire for love and acceptance. Also included in this edition are two earlier plays, The Unexpected Man and Conversations After a Burial. Each elucidates the startling difference between public and private life, be it in the confines of a train compartment or a country estate in the aftermath of a loved one's passing.
288 pages, Paperback
First published July 30, 2005
About the author
Yasmina Reza
54 books632 followersYasmina Reza began work as an actress, appearing in several new plays as well as in plays by Molière and Marivaux. In 1987 she wrote Conversations after a Burial, which won the Molière Award for Best Author. Following this, she translated Kafka's Metamorphosis for Roman Polanski and was nominated for a Molière Award for Best Translation. Her second play, Winter Crossing, won the 1990 Molière for Best Fringe Production, and her next play The Unexpected Man, enjoyed successful productions in England, France, Scandinavia, Germany and New York. In 1995, Art premiered in Paris and went on to win the Molière Award for Best Author. Since then it has been produced world-wide and translated into 20 languages. The London production received the 1996-97 Olivier Award and Evening Standard Award. Screenwriting credits include See You Tomorrow, starring Jeanne Moreau and directed by Didier Martiny. In September 1997, her first novel, Hammerklavier, was published.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 17, 2024
My first time reading plays and it was very enjoyable. I’m learning to enjoy them now actually, the storytelling is much different than any other media forms i’ve consumed and I think this is my first time reading something so heavily propelled by dialogue. Books are meant to be dreamed and imagined so dialogue works with explicit scene building and description to create the art; in movies we use music, dialogue, and explicit visual images to create the art. However, reading plays (so far) is such a sparse, suggestive experience and direct/explicit in a much different way than its counterparts.
In plays, the whole world is alluded to, you can only know the story through the characters, and the moments of scene building, and MAYBE through a narrator. Reza focuses entirely on scenes in domestic life. Its as if we’re intruding on the moments noone else is supposed to see. She precises on human interaction, characters reacting to and bouncing off one another, being their absolute worst selves! There is no REAL drama, not many tears, just little squabbles. Its like watching sims. Or peeking into the window of a dollhouse. The environment is largely static in all the plays, occuring in a single room (save for Conversations after a Burial).
Art — I found this hilarious and fast-paced. It was a wild ride where nothing really happened, feelings were hurt, old grievances aired, and many a personal dig were doled out. Some of my favorite moments: “You have no substance, Yvan, youre flabby, you’re and amoeba)” and from Yvan “I thought ill come back with a gun and blow his head off, then he’ll see how flabby and obsequious i am” She really portrays just some dreadful people i’d hope never to encounter Marc. Felt kinda like a look into the niche interior lives of affluent white people, like she’s portraying the texture in its smooth-brainedness through these squabbles.
The Unexpected Man — I found to be one of my least favorite plays. It is yet again another pair of caucasians doing caucasian things on a train in Europe. The play is made up almost entirely of the parallel interior dialogues of the two characters, It is not till the end that they finally interact and the result was a bit lacking, I wasnt very intrigued by her characters (though I was definitely convinced). Spent most of the beginning of the play building their own lives and audience perception of these characters.
Conversations after a Burial — my least favorite. It felt all over the place. A friend described that play to me explaining Reza must have been drunk when she wrote it. And that is a great description. Nothing seems to connect, the play feels like a collection of richoeting interactions we as the audience do not really have the context for to really give a damn its happening in the first place.
The characters are all extremely annoying and repugnant. Could perhaps make more sense to see it performed? Hoping that the appeal of this play has simply been lost to print.
Life x 3: I found beautifully chaotic, and I can forgive Conversations After a Burial if that style of round-robin rapid interaction is what lead to the development of this play. It felt like a series of experiments, which I loved. Dialogue experiments! I had just as much fun each time as the last going through each outrageous and hilarious domestic scene.
In plays, the whole world is alluded to, you can only know the story through the characters, and the moments of scene building, and MAYBE through a narrator. Reza focuses entirely on scenes in domestic life. Its as if we’re intruding on the moments noone else is supposed to see. She precises on human interaction, characters reacting to and bouncing off one another, being their absolute worst selves! There is no REAL drama, not many tears, just little squabbles. Its like watching sims. Or peeking into the window of a dollhouse. The environment is largely static in all the plays, occuring in a single room (save for Conversations after a Burial).
Art — I found this hilarious and fast-paced. It was a wild ride where nothing really happened, feelings were hurt, old grievances aired, and many a personal dig were doled out. Some of my favorite moments: “You have no substance, Yvan, youre flabby, you’re and amoeba)” and from Yvan “I thought ill come back with a gun and blow his head off, then he’ll see how flabby and obsequious i am” She really portrays just some dreadful people i’d hope never to encounter Marc. Felt kinda like a look into the niche interior lives of affluent white people, like she’s portraying the texture in its smooth-brainedness through these squabbles.
The Unexpected Man — I found to be one of my least favorite plays. It is yet again another pair of caucasians doing caucasian things on a train in Europe. The play is made up almost entirely of the parallel interior dialogues of the two characters, It is not till the end that they finally interact and the result was a bit lacking, I wasnt very intrigued by her characters (though I was definitely convinced). Spent most of the beginning of the play building their own lives and audience perception of these characters.
Conversations after a Burial — my least favorite. It felt all over the place. A friend described that play to me explaining Reza must have been drunk when she wrote it. And that is a great description. Nothing seems to connect, the play feels like a collection of richoeting interactions we as the audience do not really have the context for to really give a damn its happening in the first place.
The characters are all extremely annoying and repugnant. Could perhaps make more sense to see it performed? Hoping that the appeal of this play has simply been lost to print.
Life x 3: I found beautifully chaotic, and I can forgive Conversations After a Burial if that style of round-robin rapid interaction is what lead to the development of this play. It felt like a series of experiments, which I loved. Dialogue experiments! I had just as much fun each time as the last going through each outrageous and hilarious domestic scene.
July 15, 2019
I like Reza best when she dives into interpersonal dynamics. I particularly enjoyed Life x 3, which felt like much more than an exercise. Some of her work can feel a little detached from reality, but that one felt so rooted in reality, and I think that is when her work hits hardest.
June 30, 2023
Reza's sharp dialogue and strong characterisation are the main stars here. Very little happens across all of these plays. Most of the action (a death, a wedding-invite spat, a kid being given an apple) happens offstage, sometimes before the story starts. What we see is people's reactions, their interactions, and their introspections. In the slower scenes this comes off a little dull, a little pretentious. Most of the time, though, the rapid-fire snark and cynicism tearing at the seams of friendships and identities is more than enough to keep the drama flowing.
Art remains my favourite of her works. The value and purpose of abstract art is an interesting topic in its own, and Reza gives us a stubborn bastard at each end of the debate, as well as a limp go-between to muddy the waters. Apparently said wimp was played by Tim Key at one point. Would've loved to see him deliver the surprise two-page monologue... Anyway, the depth of the characters isn't limited by their polarity, and you end up with a tight, funny script with a sledgehammer conclusion. Or as close to sledgehammers as discussions about white paintings can get.
The Unexpected Man was oddly sweet, particularly for a play consisting mostly of self-deprecating internal monologues where the sole exciting action is a man opening a window. The two characters are trapped in their heads, obsessed with their own shortcomings, ignorant of the connection they have. They're both quite likeable, have strong and disparate voices, and again Reza slam-dunks the ending.
Conversations After A Burial works, the dialogue is sharp and flows well, but a few days later I don't really care much. The family drama premise was developed well, abd there's a subtle build of tension that works very nicely, but it gets messed around with by some unprecedented dream sequences. I don't know, maybe this one would work better onstage. She tends to give the dramaturge a lot of leeway in all of these plays - very sparse stage direction, most actions inferred from dialogue, etc. At least this proves Reza can handle more than a few couples onstage.
Life x3 was the most disappointing. Interesting premise: three iterations of one disastrous dinner. It works as a character study. I enjoyed seeing how each person reacts when dialogue differs slightly, when more is known or appearances change. I just didn't feel much weight to the events - a kid's too demanding, a couple ignites an affair, so what? You see the three versions, all largely equal in import, and you leave thinking the consequences mutable. Recency bias does its bit, but still the destruction of the pretense that there is Only One Plot does no favours for gravitas. Kind of a shame this one comes last. I hope I'm missing something.
The works seemed to be translated very well - dialogue flowed well but it still had that some lovely French snottiness. A shame this was a couple years too early to include God of Carnage.
Art remains my favourite of her works. The value and purpose of abstract art is an interesting topic in its own, and Reza gives us a stubborn bastard at each end of the debate, as well as a limp go-between to muddy the waters. Apparently said wimp was played by Tim Key at one point. Would've loved to see him deliver the surprise two-page monologue... Anyway, the depth of the characters isn't limited by their polarity, and you end up with a tight, funny script with a sledgehammer conclusion. Or as close to sledgehammers as discussions about white paintings can get.
The Unexpected Man was oddly sweet, particularly for a play consisting mostly of self-deprecating internal monologues where the sole exciting action is a man opening a window. The two characters are trapped in their heads, obsessed with their own shortcomings, ignorant of the connection they have. They're both quite likeable, have strong and disparate voices, and again Reza slam-dunks the ending.
Conversations After A Burial works, the dialogue is sharp and flows well, but a few days later I don't really care much. The family drama premise was developed well, abd there's a subtle build of tension that works very nicely, but it gets messed around with by some unprecedented dream sequences. I don't know, maybe this one would work better onstage. She tends to give the dramaturge a lot of leeway in all of these plays - very sparse stage direction, most actions inferred from dialogue, etc. At least this proves Reza can handle more than a few couples onstage.
Life x3 was the most disappointing. Interesting premise: three iterations of one disastrous dinner. It works as a character study. I enjoyed seeing how each person reacts when dialogue differs slightly, when more is known or appearances change. I just didn't feel much weight to the events - a kid's too demanding, a couple ignites an affair, so what? You see the three versions, all largely equal in import, and you leave thinking the consequences mutable. Recency bias does its bit, but still the destruction of the pretense that there is Only One Plot does no favours for gravitas. Kind of a shame this one comes last. I hope I'm missing something.
The works seemed to be translated very well - dialogue flowed well but it still had that some lovely French snottiness. A shame this was a couple years too early to include God of Carnage.
Read
July 26, 2026Art: I think Reza is one of the most brilliant playwrights writing today. This is the second play of hers I've read--the first was God of Carnage--and I've seen both performed. What I find so incredible is the way Reza structures conflict in a series of crescendos. The up and down motion of her conflict is more evident in God of Carnage, but in Art the action rises quickly, plateaus, and then rises again, plateaus, and rises, until in the final moments of the play there is a resolution, which is undercut or destabilized at the last minute. The tight way she moves action across various levels of tension is extremely impressive, almost mirroring the painting which is the catalyst for the conflict in this play. The painting in question is white with white stripes. The difference is subtle, but it is definitely there. I think the same goes for Reza's shifts in the tone of her conflicts--they are subtle shifts but they structure the play and pull it together into an effective coherence.
https://youtu.be/QekRfFYeM00
The Unexpected Man: I don't generally like monologue plays, and this is a braided monologue play for the majority of the time. There's a man named Paul Parsky and a woman (whose name I don't remember, if it was even mentioned) sharing a train carriage, and she recognizes him as one of her favorite authors, whose latest book she's in the midst of reading. Each person spends the majority of the play in their own thoughts. Parsky considering the various levels of bitterness in his life, and the woman contemplating the conversations she would like to have with him, based on the type of person she has imagined him to be from his books. It's a meta-artistic play, thinking through what it means to be a writer and to try and express something about the world, and about what it means to be a reader who invests something of ourselves into the writer (or our image of the writer).
https://youtu.be/JlaU6A2U5KY
Conversations after a Burial: This play sees a group of three siblings (two brothers and a sister), their uncle and his wife, and the ex-lover of the two brothers who have gathered for the burial of the siblings' father. We don't learn a ton about him, apart from the family being somewhat dysfunctional through the combination of all of their quirks, and that the father specifically had a strained relationship with Alex, the younger son. But then, Alex seems to have a strained relationship with pretty much everyone, including his brother Nathan, whom he both admires and resents; his sister Edith, whom he doesn't seem to respect much; Elisa, who had dated Alex for a while but also slept with/sleeps with during this play Nathan; and Julienne, uncle Pierre's wife, whom Alex kind of insults repeatedly. Basically, the relationships are strained by the circumstance and by the history between these people, and much of the play involves the flow around those strains. But the play also involves these deep questions of trying to understand/work out death and how to react to it. The strain of grief is always just below the surface, and it's hard to tell how much grief as such drives various peoples' actions specifically.
https://youtu.be/gQnnS9Sm43g
Life x 3: A Rashomon-style play in which the same evening of two couples meeting for dinner (sort of) is played out three times. The central conflicts are generally the same, though they play out in dramatically different ways each time, sometimes more aggressively and with more conflict, and sometimes less. Thematically, the play explores issues like control (both of one's self and regulation of the behavior of family members like spouses and children), power and prestige in one's professional and interpersonal life, marital troubles, and the difficulties of publishing/scientific research. All of these issues are refracted in different ways in each telling of the evening, and all are thematically linked to the structure of repetition/variation, in that all of the themes deal with concerns about whether or not one is in control of situations, but in each re-telling there are different forms of control and characters have different degrees of it.
https://youtu.be/GVfaxHA753M
https://youtu.be/QekRfFYeM00
The Unexpected Man: I don't generally like monologue plays, and this is a braided monologue play for the majority of the time. There's a man named Paul Parsky and a woman (whose name I don't remember, if it was even mentioned) sharing a train carriage, and she recognizes him as one of her favorite authors, whose latest book she's in the midst of reading. Each person spends the majority of the play in their own thoughts. Parsky considering the various levels of bitterness in his life, and the woman contemplating the conversations she would like to have with him, based on the type of person she has imagined him to be from his books. It's a meta-artistic play, thinking through what it means to be a writer and to try and express something about the world, and about what it means to be a reader who invests something of ourselves into the writer (or our image of the writer).
https://youtu.be/JlaU6A2U5KY
Conversations after a Burial: This play sees a group of three siblings (two brothers and a sister), their uncle and his wife, and the ex-lover of the two brothers who have gathered for the burial of the siblings' father. We don't learn a ton about him, apart from the family being somewhat dysfunctional through the combination of all of their quirks, and that the father specifically had a strained relationship with Alex, the younger son. But then, Alex seems to have a strained relationship with pretty much everyone, including his brother Nathan, whom he both admires and resents; his sister Edith, whom he doesn't seem to respect much; Elisa, who had dated Alex for a while but also slept with/sleeps with during this play Nathan; and Julienne, uncle Pierre's wife, whom Alex kind of insults repeatedly. Basically, the relationships are strained by the circumstance and by the history between these people, and much of the play involves the flow around those strains. But the play also involves these deep questions of trying to understand/work out death and how to react to it. The strain of grief is always just below the surface, and it's hard to tell how much grief as such drives various peoples' actions specifically.
https://youtu.be/gQnnS9Sm43g
Life x 3: A Rashomon-style play in which the same evening of two couples meeting for dinner (sort of) is played out three times. The central conflicts are generally the same, though they play out in dramatically different ways each time, sometimes more aggressively and with more conflict, and sometimes less. Thematically, the play explores issues like control (both of one's self and regulation of the behavior of family members like spouses and children), power and prestige in one's professional and interpersonal life, marital troubles, and the difficulties of publishing/scientific research. All of these issues are refracted in different ways in each telling of the evening, and all are thematically linked to the structure of repetition/variation, in that all of the themes deal with concerns about whether or not one is in control of situations, but in each re-telling there are different forms of control and characters have different degrees of it.
https://youtu.be/GVfaxHA753M
June 7, 2021
“Art” *** -- This short play appears to be a commentary on friendship, making the point that at some level falsehood is needed in any relationship. No one wants another person’s complete honesty. It is too damaging (and it potentially isn’t even honest).
I believe this also says something about art, but that is a bit more elusive to me.
Overall, it is an interesting play and I liked the speeches directed to the audience. That was done well. I couldn’t buy into the discussion about the friends controlling each other. Isn’t Marc simply jealous of Serge’s painting and the fact that Serge is moving on to new interests that might not include Marc? That whole “control/mold” argument felt kind of affected me.
Overall, an innovative work, but not quite my thing.
Life X 3 *** -- This play plays out the same basic situation with the characters acting differently each time. The question is, are we to see the characters/personalities as the same but responding differently each time, or are the characters/situation the same, but their personalities are different in each scenario. I think the first case is more interesting, but I think the latter is more evident in the play. The Henry in the first scene doesn’t feel to me to be the same person as in the last scene. They have similarities but their basic personalities are different.
It’s interesting that they discuss the flatness of galaxy halos, and not the idea of multiple universes in which different universes split off to play out different scenarios. Maybe that would have been too obvious.
I believe this also says something about art, but that is a bit more elusive to me.
Overall, it is an interesting play and I liked the speeches directed to the audience. That was done well. I couldn’t buy into the discussion about the friends controlling each other. Isn’t Marc simply jealous of Serge’s painting and the fact that Serge is moving on to new interests that might not include Marc? That whole “control/mold” argument felt kind of affected me.
Overall, an innovative work, but not quite my thing.
Life X 3 *** -- This play plays out the same basic situation with the characters acting differently each time. The question is, are we to see the characters/personalities as the same but responding differently each time, or are the characters/situation the same, but their personalities are different in each scenario. I think the first case is more interesting, but I think the latter is more evident in the play. The Henry in the first scene doesn’t feel to me to be the same person as in the last scene. They have similarities but their basic personalities are different.
It’s interesting that they discuss the flatness of galaxy halos, and not the idea of multiple universes in which different universes split off to play out different scenarios. Maybe that would have been too obvious.
May 5, 2020
The set of plays Reza has written are simply not my taste. They are very abstract in ideas and in stage directions. My favorite play in the collection was “Life x3” where an evening between two couples is played out between three different scenarios.
All in all. The majority of these works, I find, are extremely pretentious and are hard to find enjoyable. I found it very hard to connect or feel empathy for any of her characters as I feel they are not given proper backgrounds or developed conflicts.
All in all. The majority of these works, I find, are extremely pretentious and are hard to find enjoyable. I found it very hard to connect or feel empathy for any of her characters as I feel they are not given proper backgrounds or developed conflicts.
December 23, 2018
Reza has an impressive sense of all the ways people can be bad to each other. Her wit and humanity, though, keep these plays from sinking from the dark to the merely depressing.
March 6, 2019
The 5 star rating is for ART. (I haven't read the others yet.)
ART had me howling at the absurdity of it all. This is a brilliant play.
ART had me howling at the absurdity of it all. This is a brilliant play.
October 30, 2023
5 stars for life x 3. Some other minor plays are included here as well
March 24, 2025
incredibly sharp and funny. disorienting. domestic purgatories, often about how unkind people can get when their intellect is questioned
Read
October 6, 2020A mixed collection. I enjoyed Art and Life x 3, somewhat at least, but I would hardly say that Yasmina Reza's work was captivating. They're social critiques of bourgeois upper-middle-class values. I just can't relate, or get particularly excited about that. Her play God of Carnage (not in this collection) is very good and definitely worth reading, but I probably wouldn't recommend this collection.
July 31, 2016
A great collection from the fantastic Yasmina Reza. I've seen two on the stage ("Art, and "Life x 3") and I loved reading them as much as I loved seeing them. "Conversations after a Burial" is quite intriguing, I enjoyed it a lot. "The Unexpected Man" took me a lot to finish, although the writing was great, I found it a little boring and hard to follow. In conclusion, this book is a great collection and an enjoyable reading.
September 10, 2012
All but the last piece, "Life X 3", are worth reading. I especially enjoyed "Conversations After a Burial". I do prefer the novels (or memoir) of Yasmina Reza and look forward, eagerly, for more translations forthcoming.
July 14, 2009
A new favorite playwright.
June 24, 2018
Read "Art"
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