ne of the most cynical, misanthropic, intelligent and promising playwrights and filmmakers to emerge during the last 10 years will be speaking at the University of Utah next week. The Lab Theatre’s student production of Neil LaBute’s “The Shape of Things” premieres Thursday, April 1, and LaBute will speak and answer questions after the show.

(If LaBute isn’t enough, there will also be an art auction and free refreshments.)

The play follows the relationship of college students Evelyn and Adam (I’m sure their names are just a coincidence), as she turns him into a nice, nerdy guy into a not-so-nice handsome man. The play is typical LaBute, looking at largely unlikable characters with an honest, funny, discomforting style.

Laura Neubauer, assistant producer and publicity director for the production, said, “It deals with the subjectivity of art and it not only takes place on a college campus with students much like ourselves, but it’s thought-provoking. I feel that the students here enjoy being challenged.”

LaBute adapted the play into an excellent film last year, his fifth feature in a career that includes such acclaimed works as “In the Company of Men,” “Your Friends & Neighbors” and “Nurse Betty.” His theater work includes “bash: latterday plays,” which chronicles tragedies in the lives of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through a series of monologues.

Neubauer thinks that LaBute is an important voice for students, especially film students, writers, theater students and art majors, because it takes passion and perseverance to deal with the issues he writes about. “Neil LaBute is one of those playwrights whose work has always had difficulty finding its way into production. Lots of his work includes uncomfortable issues that people don’t like to hear, but I think that they need to hear,” Neubauer said. “He’s overcome that with hard work and talent as a writer.”

The student body selected the play, first by nominating the ones they wanted to see, then by voting on the ones for which the rights were obtainable. Senior Joel Richards was selected to direct the play after making a short presentation in front of the student body. Richards is a great admirer of LaBute’s work. “That was one of the major reasons that I applied to direct,” he said.

“I love the brutal honesty. He’s not afraid to put anything on the page or on the stage. He’s not afraid to show people at their best or at their worst. And the line between people’s best and worse is often blurred,” he said.

Richards’s key approach to the play was not to judge the characters or bring a blame-like style to the piece. “I don’t believe that he makes these characters intentionally confrontational…They’re people in complicated situations who are trying to deal with them,” he said. “I feel that the actors have done a wonderful job with that.”

People are often surprised to find that LaBute’s harsh outlook on life developed in the theater department at Brigham Young University, as his honesty and negative outlook don’t fit the LDS stereotype. As far as LaBute knows, none of his plays have been produced at BYU since he graduated, Neubauer said. “We did a phone interview with him the other day. He said, ‘Well, I never really liked those people anyway.’”

Whether or not LaBute is joking, he still has friends at BYU’s theater department, although it’s questionable whether any of his work will be performed there again. “It sort of depends on what he writes. His plays tend to have enough language issues and to some degree content issues that we won’t be able to [produce one of his plays] in the near future. We like Neil, several of us are in contact with him in several degrees of regularity, so it’s not as if we’ve closed all ties with him,” said Bob Nelson, chairperson of BYU’s department of theater and media arts.

LaBute will soon be at his alma mater’s rival, a playwright and director watching how Richards interpreted his play. “I’m sure it’s not exactly what he had in mind, but I think he’ll appreciate that it’s a solid production. We’ve made our own choices,” Richards said. “I’m excited to have him see the show. But more than who sees it, I’d like to say that I just set out to put together a really good show. It sounds superficial, but I wanted to do something that I felt good about having my name on.”
jeremy@red-mag.com