Neil LaBute

Filthy Talk for Troubled Time is one of LaButes earliest plays. A downbeat night at a topless bar exposes the gulf between the twitchy clientele and the waitresses who serve but despise them. The Mercy Seat examines a couple who, on the day after a world-changing atrocity, toy with exploiting it to start a new life. Some Girl(s) follows a young writers panicked retreat from his imminent wedding as he seeks out old girlfriends and opens new wounds, while in This Is How It Goes the breakdown of a seemingly successful marriage is complicated by submerged bigotry. The collection also includes two short plays about relationships in crisis - A Second of Pleasure and Helter Skelter - which are in equal part tender and chilling. Together these plays form a complex and compelling portrait of the sexes - sometimes warring, sometimes loving, but never fully at peace.

LaBute takes us to shadowy places we dont like to talk about, sometimes even to think about.Newsday Obsession with surface and secrets runs through this second collection of Neil LaButes work. The Shape of Things peels back the skin of modern-day relationships to ask how far someone might change themselves for love, or for art. In Fat Pig, a man confronts his friends - and his own - fixation with Hollywood ideals of beauty when he falls for a plus size young woman. In a Dark Dark House and In a Forest, Dark and Deep are twin tales of sibling conflict. In the first, estranged brothers must reconcile conflicting memories, after one asks for corroboration of childhood abuse. In the second, a mans offer to help his sister clear out her cottage brings a terrible confession into the light.The Shape of ThingsWhat initially seems a touching study of student romance develops instead into a passionate discussion about the way art feeds on life.Daily TelegraphFat PigAs large as Helen is, the tender heart of the play is easily twice as big. VarietyIn a Dark Dark HouseLaBute toys with expectations and takes pleasure in our discomfort... The play does lead to a pretty dark place - but the ending is not without hope.Daily MailIn a Forest, Dark and Deep It is billed as being about sibling rivalry, but in fact majors on far deeper, dangerous things: the yearning to be understood, female manipulation, and fascinated male disgust at a sisters lurid sexuality.The Times

It was so simple . . . just a few little bits in his diary, files that he kept in longhand with all his thoughts and wishes and dreams . . . Bobby thinks hes simply lending his sister a hand with clearing out her cottage in the forest. But its a dark and stormy night and his sister has a secret.I know it cant be that bad, whatever was the reason this guy left here in such a hurry . . .In a Forest, Dark and Deep by Neil LaBute premiered at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, in March 2011.

Three years after a difficult breakup, Steph and Greg are wondering if they can start over again. The trouble is, shes married someone else and hes started a relationship with her best friend Carly. Meanwhile, Carlys ex-husband Kent wants her back, and even more so when he hears about her new romance with his best friend Greg. As emotions run high, all four find themselves entangled in a web of hidden agendas and half-truths in their pursuit of a happy life. A companion piece to the acclaimed Reasons to Be Pretty, Neil LaButes Reasons to Be Happy received its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, in March 2016.

Greg is overheard admitting that his girlfriend Steph is no beauty, but that he wouldnt change her for the world. She is devastated; he cant see what hes done wrong. Meanwhile, Gregs friend Kent alternates between boasting about how gorgeous his wife Carlyis and chasing after a hot new colleague. The final part of Neil LaButes beauty trilogy (following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig) about societys obsession with looks, Reasons to Be Pretty premiered in the UK at the Almeida Theatre, London, in November 2011.[The Shape of Things] is LaButes thesis on extreme feminine wiles, as well as a disquisition on how far an artist can go in the name of art . . . Like a chiropractor for the soul, LaBute is looking for realignment, listening for the crack.ElleA heart-warming tale from Americas master misanthrope.Independent on Fat Pig

Neil Labute es hasta ahora muy conocido y respetado como dramaturgo y también como director y guionista de cine. Momentos de placer supuso la inauguración de su carrera como narrador, faceta con la que se ha ganado el respeto de la critica y el favor del publico. Tensados por la agilidad y la capacidad de sintesis propias del teatro y el cine, estos cuentos, muy bien insertados en la rica tradicion norteamericana del genero, son pedazos de intensidad expuestos con un estilo diafnao, rapido, de imagenes contundentes e imborrables.La primera incursion en la narrativa de un famoso director y guionista estadounidense.

Bash Three darkly brilliant one-act plays, unblinking portraits of the evils abroad in everyday life, first performed in 1999. You dont need to be familiar with Greek tragedy to admire LaButes ability to illuminate the dark corners of the human mind . . . He writes with unblinking candour, unvarying incisiveness and the ear and eye for the tiny, telling fact that reveals a character floundering on the edge.The TimesReasons to Be Pretty Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, Reasons to Be Pretty explores love, language and power with fresh wit and insight.Neil LaBute at his best. It says things about love and betrayal that are rarely put on stage . . . The play has the transfixing nastiness that has made LaBute one of the most disturbing theatrical presences of the last decade. Yet it also has an unexpected ingredient: a beating heart.Observer Now collected with its sequel, which follows the same four loveable characters - Reasons to Be HappyA richly entertaining shard of tragicomedy . . . a snap survey of American masculinity in crisis.Daily TelegraphIf I Needed Someone A drunken first date becomes an acutely observed dance of desire, expectation and consent. For all of its misunderstandings, misperceptions, and bristles, for all the insecurities and past hurt it opens for both characters, If I Needed Someone is the kind of first date that people looking for love dream of having.Broadway WorldHow to Fight Loneliness A married couple call on a third man to help them make a desperate decision, in this compelling and unsettling drama. How to Fight Loneliness received its UK premiere at the Park Theatre, London, in April 2025. A play that will force you to consider your own sense of mortality . . . starkly devastating.Spectrum