The strength of playwright Neil LaBute's writing skills was on full display in the District Theatre's equally stunning, Friday-night presentation of reasons to be pretty. LaBute's gritty drama about the demise of a couple after the guy is overheard describing his girl as having a "regular"-looking face is loaded with sharp banter and realistic relationships that are less than perfect, and the show's dark humor is not lost on director Bryan Tank's cast. The comicality is clear as the characters scream obscenities at each other, stab each other verbally, and behave in seriously ugly ways.
Author Neil LaBute is known, and respected, for pushing the envelope with his plays. The Richmond Hill Barn Theatre generally produces plays that are comparatively safe in theme and style. So it's a somewhat surprising thing to see LaBute's The Shape of Things on the barn-theatre stage - and, I think, a very good thing, too. Because while some of the play's elements are offensive, its central themes of art, relationships, and what we're willing to do for love are well worth examining. And happily, they're examined here in a production that is also thoughtfully staged and performed.
Neil LaBute's Bash - the debut presentation from the newly formed Phoenix Theatre Company - finds three of the author's short plays performed in succession, and in the middle of its first offering, actor Chris White rises from his chair, walks to its back, removes his suit coat, and then sits down again. In movie parlance, this is what would be known as Bash's "action scene."
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