About the Play:
The volume Lovely Head and Other Plays is a collection of
one-act plays and short works by Neil LaBute. Trick
or tryst? The title piece Lovely Head unveils the secrets of
an obsessive recurrent rendezvous. When letting go is not an option.
Also included is The Great War and
some of his most masterful and affecting shorter works that are used as
scene study vehicles
in acting classes and workshops.
Lovely Head – the title is a double entendre – is a
bizarre, contemporary love affair that starts off with what appears
to be a straight forward transaction between a nervous older man and
a glib young call girl who shows up at his apartment for what is
apparently a regular appointment. But as the play goes on it
gradually becomes something altogether different. The audience is
forced to reassess what it sees before and realize that the
relationship between the two is not as they thought. The surprises
continue all the way to the end which sees the roles of the two
characters entirely changed, if not reversed. This one-act play that
had its American premiere off-off Broadway at New York's famed La
MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) in 2012. (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)
The Great War looks at the "divvying-up-the-goods"
battle between a divorcing couple and the ground they need to cross
to reach their own end of hostilities. A brutal and often hilarious battle of truths
where divorce might just reveal more than we would prefer to admit.
Lines drawn, gauntlets down,
tongues sharpened as they reflect on 9 years of pretty much Hell and there's a surprise in store for one of them! The Great War will take no prisoners. This one-act play is his
contribution to Ensemble Studio Theatre's (EST's) 1998 one-act-play
marathon. (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)
In the Beginning is a 10-minute play that focuses on generational conflict reaching
a breaking point between a long-suffering middle-class father and his
wannabe-revolutionary student daughter, who relies on daddy's hard
earned money to pay for her continued participation in demos and
protests around the country. Can he finally draw the line? It was
among the highlights of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and produced
around the world in 2012-13 as part of the British-based collective
"Theatre Uncut". (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)
The Wager is the stage version of the film Double or
Nothing starring Adam Brody. On their way home from a club in NYC, a
resentful young guy abuses a wheelchair-bound homeless man to the
increasing distress of the guy's girlfriend – but who's fooling
whom? A game of chance quickly begins to escalate into something more
dangerous. It's an awful story with a disturbingly satisfying
conclusion. (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)
Plus three two-handers (A Guy Walks into a Bar; Over the
River and Through the Woods; and Strange Fruit), and two
powerful monologues (Bad Girl and The Pony of Love).
A Guy Walks into a Bar to find himself presented with a very tempting offer! When an attractive single girl offers an engaged man at a bar a
no-strings attached one-night stand that will be their little secret, it seems too good to be true –
and maybe it is! Are things as they seem or is he walking into a
trap? (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)
In Over the River
and Through the Woods, a married woman faces a terrible choice when a teenage girl in her family comes to
her with a claim she was abused as a child by the older woman's
husband. Can she be trusted to do what is 'right'? (Cast: 2 female)
Strange Fruit is the story of
two men, so very different, who fall deeply in love and plan to get married "the old-fashioned
way" only to have their dream stymied when reality rears its ugly head.
(Cast: 2 male)
What people say:
"Mr. LaBute is writing some
of the freshest and most illuminating American dialogue to be heard
anywhere these day." — The New York Times
"Neil LaBute
is the most legitimately provocative and polarizing playwright at
work today."— The New Yorker
"The play twists continually,
and the truth is always one twist away. LaBute is such a skillful
writer — edgy, funny, outrageous...." — Financial
Times
About the Playwright:
Neil LaBute is an
award-winning American playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter. His
plays include bash, Reasons to be Pretty (Tony Award nominated for
best play), In a Forest, Dark and Deep, and Reasons to be Happy. His
films include In the Company of Men (New York Critics' Circle Award
for Best First Feature and the Filmmaker Trophy at the Sundance Film
Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The
Shape of Things, Some Velvet Morning, and Dirty Weekend. He is a 2013
recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters.