Life X 3 presents three versions of two couples (and an offstage six-year-old) trying to make a success of one evening despite the fact that they neither like nor respect one another. When Hubert and Inès arrive a day early to dinner at the home of Henri and Sophie, Sophie barely has time to change out of her robe and Inès is in a foul mood about a run in her stocking—from there, the evening can only go downhill. Over an improvised meal of chocolate fingers, potato chips, and wine, the couples trade insults on every social and professional level and loyalties are changed with the same rapidity that glasses of Sancerre are drained. However, as she has so astutely done in the past, Yasmina Reza uses these acidic exchanges to illuminate the innate desire for love and acceptance in us all.

What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behaviour of their children? A calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach ids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime? Boys will be boys, but the adults are usually worse - much worse. Christopher Hampton's translation of Yasmina Reza's sharp-edged new play The God of Carnage premiered at the Gielgud Theatre, London, in March 2008. Christopher Hampton has translated five plays by Yasmina Reza: 'Art', The Unexpected Man, Conversations after a Burial, Life x 3 and The God of Carnage.

Yasmina Reza's award-winning comedy Art is collected here with three more of her sharp witty and sexy plays, all translated with elegance and elan by Christopher Hampton. Art Serge has bought a modern painting for a huge sum of money. Mark hates it and cannot believe that a friend of his could possibly want such a work. Yvan attempts, unsuccessfully, to placate both sides. The question is, are you who you think you are or are you who your friends think you are? If your friendship is based on tacit mutual agreement, what happens when one person does something completely different? Life x 3 Henri and Sonia are putting their son to bed when an unexpected knock at the door throws them into disarray. Hubert and Ines have arrived for dinner, a day earlier than expected. As the evening degenerates, Yasmina Reza blends cruel observations with high comedy in an hilarious and poignant examinatioin of our most personal intimacies and private longings. The Unexpected Man A train compartment. A man and a woman. In a series of dazzling internal monologues, the man, a novelist, muses on his latest work, contemplates the futility of writing and considers his life in terms of his daughter, her lover and the workings of Ex-Lax on his digestive system. The woman thinks of her life, her loves and friendships in the full knowledge that the man she is facing is the novelist she admires and would love to speak to, and whose latest work she has tucked in her handbag. Conversations After a Burial Simon Weinberg is dead. On a November morning, six people gather at his funeral - siblings, lovers and in-laws. Mourning allows them special privilege and, for a few hours, they are isolated in another world under a lingering sun, in the shadow of the deceased. Conversations After a Burial examines the intense pause between loss and life; between absence and the return to everyday existence.

What happens when two sets of parent's meet up to deal with the unruly behaviour of their children? A calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime? Boys will be boys, but the adults are usually worse - much worse. God of Carnage won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Tony award for Best Play.

Winner of the Moliere Award for Best Play, Production and Author
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play
Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy
Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best New Comedy

Art, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton, premiered at the prestigious Schaubuhne in Berlin. The play deals with men's friendship, honesty, the obsession with modernism and social status. It revolves around a white-on-white painting which Serge, a dermatologist, has bought for 200,000 francs. This so irritates Marc that his contempt threatens their long-time friendship. Yvan, the third character in the play, vacillates, distracted by his own premarital mess. At issue, in part, is the famous question: "What is art ?" The white canvas pushes at the limits of the definition in the age-old debate.