Yasmina Reza – författare

1 novel. 18 people. 18 lives.Infinite combinations: families and friends, colleagues and patients, lovers and mourners... But sometimes a crowd is the loneliest place to be. An award-winning exploration of dreams and disillusionment, love and infidelity from the creator of global theatre sensation Art and God of Carnage.

'Art' is a profound and hilarious comedy about the value of truth and friendship.My friend Serge has bought a painting.It's a canvas about five foot by four: white. The background is white and, if you screw up your eyes, you can make out some fine white diagonal lines.Serge is one of my oldest friends.Serge has bought a modern work of art for a large sum of money. Marc hates the painting and cannot believe that a friend of his could feel differently. Yvan attempts to placate both sides, with hilarious consequences. The question is: Are you who you think you are, or are you who your friends think you are?'Art' premiered in this translation at Wyndham's Theatre, London, 1996. It won Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy, and New York Drama Critics' Circle and Tony Awards for Best Play.'A remarkably wise, witty and intelligent comedy. "Art" has touched a universal nerve.' The Times'"Art" not only brings to the stage a topical debate, it makes it invigorating, touching and finally disturbing. This dark comedy, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton in sparkling form, explores its themes through a rift between friends.' Financial Times

Simon Weinberg is dead. And, on a November morning, six people gather at his funeral - brothers and a sister, lovers and in-laws. Mourning allows them a special privilege and, for a few hours, they are isolated in another world under a lingering sun, in the shadow of the deceased.Written by the winner of the award-winning Art, Conversations after a Burial is a savage but richly comic play which explores that ineffable moment of mourning, when the newly deceased is still almost palpable, the moment in which one can maintain the memory of a breath, the intense pause between absence and the return to everyday existence, between loss and life.

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 élan by Christopher Hampton.ArtSerge 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 3Henri 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 ManA 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 BurialSimon 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 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 play 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 God of Carnage.Winner of three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play.Winner of the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

Acclaimed novelist and playwright Yasmina Reza masterfully portrays the messiness of family, where affection and resentment intertwine and the weight of a shared past looms large.When adult siblings Serge, Jean, and Nana embark on an unexpected road trip, they take along one daughter and more than enough tangled family history. As Jean watches his older brother fall apart, he tries to hold the center, and what might have been a solemn pilgrimage into the past quickly devolves into a tragicomedy of mutual fixations, private grievances, and the limits of kept company. As reflective as it is incitement, Serge is a testament to Reza’s gift for finding light in the abyss.