DETAILS

Reasons to be Pretty presented by Ground Zero Theatre
Vertigo Theatre
Thursday, November 4 - Saturday, November 20

More in: Theatre

Hit & Myth Productions’ Joel Cochrane doesn’t hold back his praise of American playwright Neil LaBute.

“He picks up where David Mamet left off,” says artistic producer Cochrane. For a contemporary playwright whose works are often described as “edgy,” it’s hard to imagine higher praise than that.

“It is really sharp and witty. He writes a lot about what young men and women are thinking about and going through,” says Cochrane. “He’s got his ear to the ground on that.”

Rogues Theatre artistic director Joe-Norman Shaw is equally enthusiastic about LaBute.

“Neil isn’t afraid to go in there and call it like it is. He’s willing to discuss, explore and navigate the terrain of male-female relationships. He deals with things other writers wouldn’t touch; he’s willing to talk about politically incorrect behaviour in contemporary society,” says Shaw.

Ground Zero Theatre/Hit & Myth Productions and Rogues Theatre are staging plays by LaBute, back-to-back.

Ground Zero/Hit & Myth is performing reasons to be pretty, the first of LaBute’s works to play on Broadway. Written in 2008, it received three Tony Award nominations, including one for best play.

Rogues Theatre is staging a slightly earlier work by LaBute — his 2005 play Some Girl(s). Its off-Broadway première starred Fran Drescher and Eric McCormack.

Young people and male-female relationships are the focus of both shows.

In Some Girl(s), the central character, Guy, is on the verge of getting married. Before taking the plunge, he decides to revisit his past, or at least several former girlfriends — his college sweetheart, a “wild child,” a university professor with whom he had an affair, and the one woman he considered the love of his life — for the apparent purpose of setting things right with them.

“In each of his relationships, he honestly believed he was in love with the person and then moved on. But a lot of women weren’t pleased with the way he left things,” says Shaw.

Each of the women he visits has a different take on what went down, and they don’t necessarily let him off the hook when it comes to his past wrongs.

Guy is also a writer, which factors into the action. “It’s a story of sexual politics and journalistic opportunism,” says Shaw, intentionally vague.

He says Some Girl(s) is one of those plays whereby audience reaction will be divided along gender lines. He speculates males in the audience will express more sympathy for the roguish Guy than their female counterparts who, Shaw says, might consider him “unconscionable” for his proclivity to treat each woman he’s been with as “the one,” only to later dump her.

“I think LaBute has written the play to provoke discussion, reaction and debate, similar to Oleanna,” he says, echoing Cochrane’s comparison to Mamet.

Shaw says the play fits Rogues Theatre’s esthetic as a New York-style theatre company offering shows with “authentic performances” and a “cinematic spin.” As such, he hopes this play will appeal to a younger audience that doesn’t typically go to the theatre.

Cochrane thinks reasons to be pretty will also resonate with young audiences.

“It’s a crackerjack piece of theatre, and it starts off at a fever pitch,” says Cochrane.

The show opens with an argument between a twentysomething couple, Greg and Steph. They fight about an offhand comment Greg made about a co-worker’s pretty face and how his girlfriend’s visage doesn’t quite measure up. Steph’s friend, Carly, overhears the comment, resulting in a “he-said-she-said” battle.

The comment sets off a chain of events that throws the socials lives of Greg, Steph, Carly and her husband Kent spinning into turmoil.

“It sets off a journey where they have to really confront what they are doing and where they are going. It makes them ask themselves, ‘Are we going to shit or get off the pot?’” says Cochrane.

As the title suggests, the play also focuses on the meaning of the word “pretty” and the theme of identity.

“If you’re pretty on the outside and hollow on the inside, what does that mean? Where does that leave you?” asks Cochrane.

The production uses alley staging — with the audience on both sides of the action — and a minimal set.

“After Evil Dead and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, we wanted to do a show that was really focused on the story and the actors,” says Cochrane. “We wanted to do something different. It’s going to be an unplugged season.”