Philly girl, Sara, steals the show (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Philly girl, Sara, steals the show

1:58pm Monday 9th February 2009 in

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Life X 3 The Watermill Theatre, Newbury Until February 28 INTIMATE and beautiful, the Watermill Theatre is an ideal setting for Yasmina “Art” Reza’s Life X 3, with a cast of just four actors.

The play is about one evening replayed three times, with three outcomes, which hinge on the minutiae of conversation, mood and actions of the characters.

It is set in the living room of Sonia (Sarah Ball) and Henri (James Wallace), an astrophysicist on the verge of publishing his research into the flatness of galaxy halos, who are having their differences about how to get their son to sleep.

A knock on the door brings fellow astrophysicist, Hubert (Christopher Villiers), and Inés (Sara Crowe) into the scene. They’ve come for dinner a day early and, instead of the expected boot-licking, as Hubert could help Henri get a promotion, the fractious couple are treated to chocolate fingers, Cheesy Wotsits and rather too much wine.

During the alternative evenings, the relationships, the balance of power and characters’ reactions to the same situations vary.

Wallace is initially the weakest link in a strong cast, but warms up by the third act as an emotionally wobbly Henri. Crowe, from the Philadelphia adverts, stands out as the slightly ditzy housewife, berated by her intellectual husband, and she strikes a perfect balance between comic, brainless chatter and genuine, if tipsy, emotion.

Ball is poised and seductive as Sonia and Villiers – Grayson Sinclair in Emmerdale – is suitably smarmy as Hubert.

For me, at a basic level, the play itself is flawed, because it is the varying mood of the characters at the beginning of each version that changes their behaviour, not just what happens during it. But, overall, this is still an enjoyable and thought-provoking evening.

The show is running until February 28 and tickets, priced between £12.50 and £22, can be booked at the box office, on 01635 46044, or online at watermill.org.uk.