Reasons to Be Pretty

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I think we needed to go through a period of ‘adulting’,” Lexi identifies, “to emerge with a team of people willing to work and commit to doing the brutal ‘hard yards’ in the creative industries.” It is 1183 and the Aquitaines are gathering for Christmas: "Shall we hang ourselves or the holly?" Henry, a robust, roistering and commanding Robert Lindsay, has invited his wife Eleanor to come out of prison (where he put her, for trying to bump him off) for the occasion. Lumley, milking every reference to wrinkles and vanity, pawing the air as if it were her pet, turns herself into Queen Patsy. Producer: Lexi Sekuless Productions by arrangement with Music Theatre International Australasia Pty Ltd, on behalf of Dramatists Play Service, Inc

Like his main character reads HAWTHORNE and SWIFT for fun?! And then has the audacity to say “Women, huh? That about sums it all up…” As odd as it seems, I came upon this play through a conversation with a Goodreads friend about Herman Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund, which in part features a "beautiful" Goldmund for a time sleeping with a lot of "beautiful" women. Male predator? I don't think so, he's as much approached as approaching women, but you have to consider the source here (me: guy). Anyway, I was casting about for a play about beauty, and this one, that was nominated for and won Tony awards, is. The plan for the set is a kind of ‘industrial minimalism’, with concrete walls, raw materials, and brutalist style furniture,” Tim explains. “The intimacy of the space will allow the audience to be seated up close to the play’s colourful characters, permitting an immersion into their lives as we follow their journey. LaBute wrote a sequel to the play, Reasons to be Happy, which premiered in June 2013 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in an MCC Theater production. It features the same four characters several years later, and starred Jenna Fischer, Josh Hamilton, Leslie Bibb and Fred Weller. [8] Awards and nominations [ edit ] Original Broadway production [ edit ] YearGod this is SUUUCH a male apologist thesis, idc if it’s being ironic about it it just is. Men always do this, layer their true feelings, especially about women being psychotic, under layers of “irony”, “absurdity”, and “jokes” just say you hate women………

Produced by MCC Theater and directed by Terry Kinney, the play premiered at the off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theater on June 2, 2008 and ran through July 5. The cast included Piper Perabo, Pablo Schreiber, Alison Pill, and Thomas Sadoski. [2] When pregnant Carly airs her suspicions about her husband to Greg, he at first tries to stay neutral, then gets trapped by the rules of male loyalty into lying to corroborate Kent’s alibi. But when Greg refuses to continue covering for Kent, friction between the two guys deepens, causing the differences between them to become irreconcilable. As Lexi concludes: “With Reasons To Be Pretty this year, and the expectation of Reasons To be Happy next year, Mill Theatre is establishing a reputation for exciting live theatre and bringing a new dimension to Canberra’s already dynamic theatre scene.” Like i swear this play is literally about oh boo hoo you think it’s bad for a man to not think you’re the most beautiful thing on earth well guess what they can be WORSE than that, you’re dumb for being upset for not being pretty enough when PREGNANT WOMEN are getting CHEATED ON. Like ok chill Neil. Every seat in the house has a great view, and a different view. Patrons walk through the set to find your seats, adding to the intimacy of the space. This means, late arrivals or patrons who leave the theatre before intermission or the end will NOT BE ADMITTED TO THE THEATRE.

Meeting with Lexi and Director Tim Sekuless at this very space to find out more, I find Tim seated in the studio’s performance space. Part sentimental romance and part pastiche, The Lion in Winter invites spoofs, even while spoofing itself; some years ago it spawned a satirical radio tribute called The Leopard in Autumn.

This is a play by Neil LaBute, who I know mostly from films he’s directed but he was a well-established playwright first. Though this and the sequel are more contemporary. Director Terry Kinney keeps the confrontations tense, volatile and mostly unpredictable — whether it’s the awkwardness of long-term male friends with nothing in common beyond their history or the timid mutual explorations of former lovers, negotiating unhealed wounds while gently testing the depths of residual affections. The bristling scenes between Steph and Greg are especially strong, from their first raw screaming match to her bilious public humiliation of him by reading a list of his physical flaws; from their distant but rueful unplanned meeting to Steph’s final, painfully shy attempt to ascertain if there’s any way to salvage their relationship. Cast: (*for actors reprising original roles) *Thomas Sadoski (Greg), Marin Ireland (Steph),* Piper Perabo (Carly) and Steven Pasquale (Kent).

About Me

WALK from Capital Brewing or the Less sculpture into the KeepCo building, pass Ramen Daddy and at the end of the corridor we are on the left. We have COVID-contingency cast members. This process means that should any cast or crew be unwell, our contingency cast will step in to ensure the safest environment for the company and audience. The front of house team will ensure audience are alerted to any changes before each show. The audience is asked to ponder as the characters reflect on their own lives, the collective concept of beauty, and the common question: How much is pretty worth? Sometimes LaBute puts symmetrical patterns and point-scoring above plausibility. Steph's initial rage gets the play going but seems wildly disproportionate. You also wonder how Greg, who rather ostentatiously reads Poe, Hawthorne and Swift on the night-shift, has managed to stay friends with a philistine bully like Kent. And, although LaBute is clearly putting in a plea for the average-looking, morally decent guy like Greg, you feel he does this only by making all the other characters appear, at various times, contemptible.

Michael Attenborough's production cleverly transmits this exceptionally inflected play. Tragedy is perky and jagged. The delivery is twangy. Mark Henderson's lighting is unflinchingly fluorescent. The design by Soutra Gilmour is snazzy: a trailer swivels round between episodes to show different faces. The only fault is over-emphatic, explanatory music accompanying each episode; all that is needed is a searing silence and the terrible screech of the buzzer summoning people to work. Will Kent get his comeuppance? Will Steph get over her rage and move on with her life? Will Greg muster up enough the get up and go to take something life changing and positive out of the ill-chosen remark without which his 4-year relationship might have gone on another indecisive and non-life changing years? Will Kent get his comeuppance and will his marriage to Carly survive? It's well worth a trip to the Lortel Theater to find out. Fat Pig -- this just opened in London, under the author's direction just as the trilogy finale opens in New York. I found one of the key conflicts in this play to be the characters inability to adequately communicate, to fully articulate what was meant. It is easier for Greg to deflect the conversation using a joke or a flippant "Whatever" than to actually say what he means. It's not even a matter of cowardice; it's more like he doesn't have the self-knowledge or vocabulary to respond to Steph. Steph can never find the right words, which leaves her with only profanity or violence.Playwright/provocateur Neil LaBute has explored our obsession with physical appearance and the way it wreaks havoc on relationships in such works as “Fat Pig” and “The Shape of Things.” But “reasons to be pretty,” the third entry in this unofficial trilogy, cuts even deeper than its predecessors. Marking the playwright’s belated Broadway debut, this lacerating and extremely funny work should appeal to younger theatergoers especially. Director Terry Kinney, repeating his chores from the play’s previous off-Broadway production, has again elicited superb performances from his ensemble. And the playwright has done some welcoming tightening of the running time, with the biggest improvement being the deletion of the extraneous monologues in which the characters unnecessarily explained their motivations. Far from being strictly American in content, the play allows the audience to access and connect with another side of Australian life, that of living in a country town or an outlying suburb. By keeping true to the language of the text, the performance brings an American-style laugh-out-loud humour. Concurrently, it challenges the cross-societal issue of superficiality shared within Australian popular culture. What I like about this dialogue-rich play is that it’s littered with literary references about US authors,” Tim chimes in. “Keeping true to the text provides a glimpse into an American slice of life.”