Review
THE SHAPE OF THINGS
Alberta Theatre Projects
Starring Meg Roe, Harry Judge, Renée Amber and Rylan Wilkie
Written by Neil LaBute
Directed by Bob White
Runs until May 1
Martha Cohen Theatre (Epcor Centre)
Near the close of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, one of its main characters rails against artists who shock for the sake of shocking. LaBute, a provocateur himself, clearly feels he doesn’t belong in that category.
The shock tactics of his hit play, now receiving a top-notch production by Alberta Theatre Projects, are used precisely to question the moral responsibility of art, as well as turn the tables on the male objectification of women. It’s a slick, brilliant bit of writing, although, as we’ve already seen from his previous plays and films, LaBute himself can be as manipulative as the artist-villain he’s created for this piece.
The Shape of Things is an update of Pygmalion, recast for LaBute’s own particular version of the Theatre of Cruelty. It’s also a kind of perverse, contemporary variant on the original temptation myth, with a couple named, significantly, Adam and Evelyn. LaBute’s innocent Adam (Harry Judge) is a shy, overweight, small-town college English major also working as security at an art gallery, who meets Evelyn (Meg Roe), an artist and fellow student, when she arrives to symbolically deface a statue of God. Charmed by her boldness and beauty, Adam asks for a date and, before long, he’s head over heels in love.
The relationship seems to work wonders on him, too, as he begins to shed pounds, visit the gym and even break his long-standing habit of biting his nails. His best pal Phillip (Rylan Wilkie) and Phillip’s fiancée Jenny (Renée Amber) are amazed and impressed by the changes. But things don’t stop there and soon, under Evelyn’s influence, Adam is acquiring a new wardrobe, a new self-confidence and even a new nose, agreeing to unnecessary cosmetic surgery at the urging of his demanding girlfriend.
Up to this point, the play offers an appalling but familiar scenario of a smitten lover willing to give up everything, from his friends to his own better judgment, in a pathetic attempt to please the one he loves. But then LaBute flips the switch, revealing the real motive behind Evelyn’s remoulding of Adam and the nature of the "installation" she’s been working on as her thesis project since they first met.
The Shape of Things is LaBute’s answer to the cold-blooded misogyny that offended viewers of his 1997 film In the Company of Men, but we don’t really need to be told that women can treat men just as cruelly. More interestingly, this play takes aim at the superficial and amoral aspects of postmodern society, whether reflected in cynical art calculated to outrage or in a popular culture obsessed with image and appearance.
Demonstrating the latter is, in fact, the point of Evelyn’s work, but her methods are devious and heartless. And LaBute undercuts any real debate on the role of morality in art by making her as shallow as the culture she critiques – she’s the most frustrating female character in a play since the rad-fem student in David Mamet’s Oleanna. LaBute cleverly uses the postmodern mania for reference to define his characters and Evelyn consistently misses Adam’s allusions to Othello, The Metamorphosis and other great works of literature, while, tellingly, she in turn refers almost entirely to classic TV shows. The only author the two seem to share in common is Oscar Wilde, hurling his various art-for-art’s-sake epigrams at each other like barbs.
Still, whether or not you share LaBute’s viewpoint, his work is seductively entertaining and, even when you know what’s coming, it offers a kind of sadistic thrill, like watching a car crash in slow motion. ATP does it justice, director Bob White’s sinuous staging sneaking up on you like a python while his young cast turn in artful performances.
Roe is an excellent Evelyn, quietly, coolly attractive but with a belligerent streak that emerges whenever she is challenged. There’s a superbly written and played scene where she and Wilkie’s aggressively opinionated Phillip end up in a shouting match, which captures with wince-inducing accuracy that social nightmare of seeing your new partner and your best friend at each other’s throats.
As poor, duped Adam, Judge does a subtle, credible job of transforming from a lumpy loser to a pretty boy and also succeeds at the more difficult task of showing us an intelligent but insecure guy who doesn’t realize, until too late, that he has been slowly stripped naked of all his dignity. And Amber brings a sweet simplicity to the role of Jenny, whose honest, awkward feelings run in contrast to the smooth deception practised by Evelyn.
Sandi Somers’s décor and Brian Pincott’s lighting emphasize the play’s art theme, turning the stage into an austere modern art gallery with a ramp and drenching the backdrop with primary colours. It may remind you of Yasmina Reza’s Art, seen at ATP two seasons ago. Like that equally adroit (but funnier) play, The Shape of Things has much more to say about modern relationships than it does about modern art. |
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