When Laura Pittenger had the chance to choose three plays she wanted to direct for her graduation requirement, she looked for something funny and witty, but also a show that would make the audience think. The junior theatre production major said she read the play "Life x 3" and knew immediately it was the one she was meant to direct.
"It was the only one that made me smile or laugh," Pittenger said.
She wanted a play that would be different than ones people usually see. After five weeks of rehearsal, "Life x 3" is opening in Cave Theatre tonight.
Written by playwright Yasmina Reza, the contemporary French play follows two couples who relive the same night three times, with the details changing each time. Though the changes are small, Pittenger said they have a large impact on the course of the play.
A scientist and his wife, Henry and Sonia have planned to have his boss and boss's wife, Hubert and Inez, over for dinner in hopes of getting a promotion. But their plans go awry when Hubert and Inez show up a day early.
Henry and Sonia are not prepared for the dinner party, and it shows how the intellectual, upper-class people have a tough time dealing with the social situation.
The play mocks people who think they are better because they are smart or have a lot of money, Pittenger said.
"It doesn't matter how smart you are," she said. "Life happens."
Pittenger said the show is a comedy, but also has its dramatic moments. Its comedy is similar to British humor, and she compared the play to "Importance of Being Ernest" or "Death at a Funeral."
"We call it a dark comedy, because people are just living their lives, and we are watching the drama unfold, but we don't know whether to laugh or sympathize," Angela Forshee, assistant director and a sophomore theatre education major, said.
There are many ways the cast members can approach their characters and the situation they portray.
"Sometimes I'll think I have something down and then the next run-through I'll have to change what I'm doing completely to make it work in the scene," Talley Gale, a freshman acting major who plays Inez, said.
Forshee said memorizing everything for the play was hard work.
"I'm worried about the lines, there are a lot of them and they all are saying something important," she said.
But through all the challenges, the cast has grown to love the show and enjoy the crazy scenes they are acting out.
Gale said her favorite scene is when her character is throws a fit out in the street about a run in her pantyhose before going to dinner.
"It's a super short scene, but it's so ridiculous and it's actually something I would do," she said.
Pittenger said she can't wait for people to see the play.
"I want to start sharing what we've done," she said.
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