CHANGING THE COSMOS, ONE SCENE AT A TIME, IN 'LIFE X 3'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

HOW CAPRICIOUS must the cosmos be if one man's fate can rest on whether his household has enough Cheese Nip crackers on hand, whether his wife greets a guest in a bathrobe or a dress, how quickly a child goes to sleep or whether the guest's wife has a run in her nylons?

Explain? Not on your utterly random existence, I can't. That's Yasmina Reza's assignment and in the 90 twisty/curvy minutes of her play ``Life X 3,'' that's exactly what the author of ``Art'' and ``The Unexpected Man'' sets out to do.

An astrophysicist, Henry, and his wife, Sonia, quarrel over placating their 6-year-old son, who won't go to sleep. A few minutes later, the husband's boss, Hubert, and his wife, Inez, arrive, a day early, for a dinner party. Even worse, Hubert bears news that could be crushing to Henry's career and, consequently, his sense of self-worth.

The same scene plays itself out three different ways, with several alterations each time. Before each permutation of this quartet's life, a disco ball hanging atop the stage at the Elephant Asylum Theatre takes a spin, throwing off light in every direction. There goes our cosmos. So what's going to shake loose with this spin?

``Life X 3,'' having its L.A. premiere under Richard Woody's direction at the Elephant, is a lofty-minded exercise played lightly. Its witty gimmickry - and probably Reza's reputation - attracted the likes of Helen Hunt, John Turturo and Brent Spiner when the play arrived on Broadway. Woody's cast is nowhere near that celebrated, but they know this material and treat it well.

Reza falls somewhere between Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard in her style of presentation and Christopher Hampton's translation isn't his most fluid. Still, Woody keeps things moving briskly and never lets his production bog down in talkiness. That Henry (played by Bowd Beal, who is also the producer) is an astrophysicist pondering the shape of cosmic rays is kind of a tangential nod to Reza's interest in randomness and chaos theory. Stoppard would have explored the conundrums from every conceivable angle. And, in his hands, the play would have been a minimum of three hours long.

Beal and Amanda Melby's Sonia are both quite adept at playing their characters three different ways through differing degrees of acceptance and frustration. A more fate-accepting Henry, for example, doesn't set Sonia off or allow Hubert to get the upper hand. Bill Hutton's Hubert, incidentally, is a smug bully no matter what the circumstances. Some people clearly know their place in the universe. In any universe.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

LIFE X 3 - Three stars

Where: Elephant Asylum Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday; through Sunday.

Tickets: $15 to $20. Call [phone] or visit www.lifex3.com.

In a nutshell: Four actors and ``Art'' playwright Yasmina Reza takes us on an entertaining spin around the cosmos without ever leaving a Paris living room.