| Familiar to movie and theatregoers alike, Neil LaBute is one of those writers whose words hit hard, no matter what the venue.
"I think I tend to write in the same sort of way, whether it’s film or for the stage," explains LaBute. "It’s driven by dialogue and usually a smaller number of characters. I don’t write for somebody – I’m not writing for actors. I tend not to write for a particular medium all the time, I just take off on a story and see where it leads me."
Despite a few forays into mid-sized casts, it is the examination of those smaller groups that gives LaBute’s scripts an intimacy that isn’t consistently present in the oeuvre of many other writers.
"I think it’s a mathematical thing, that you tend to get a greater amount of time to spend with them, the fewer number of characters you have," says LaBute. "You just get to dissect them a bit more cleanly than if you have a canvas of 20 characters that you’re trying to deal with."
Typically, LaBute says he starts out with an idea or a set of characters and writes until he arrives at a destination he is satisfied with. Known for incorporating extreme surprises in his work, he admits that even he is susceptible to this during the creative process.
"I think in the best examples of that, it has led to scripts that are not just surprising to write, but surprising to read or to watch or to act. I think that’s refreshing for an audience as well – to be surprised along the way – but I do enjoy that kind of thing as a viewer and as a writer, to allow myself to be surprised by something."
LaBute finds many of those inspirational surprises in the infinite types of relationships – particularly those that exist between men and women. "I’m not looking for the most complacent happy relationship – that would make a fairly boring play or film," he says. "I’m essentially looking to start a fight on paper."
LaBute’s own favourites among contemporary American film and theatre writers include Wallace Shawn, Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Rebecca Gillman and Christopher Shin. But ultimately, he says he’s just a really big fan of "good" work.
"I’ve often joked with myself that you should watch something better than you’ll ever do every day – as inspiration," says LaBute. "And, unfortunately, I’m able to find stuff all the time."
Don’t be so sure. |
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