Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble's, "The Shape of Things" by Neil LaBute

A deserving play gets a belated, but deserving, review.

By Dennis Wemm
THEATRE CRITIC

First and foremost, this is in no way a sweet play. Although from the first moments the action is couched in the tropes of a romantic comedy, it is out to probe the fictions of romance. It is an examination of how people manipulate each other but even more subtly, how people seem to desire manipulation whether bare-faced or deceptive.

It starts with a meet-cute scene. A man (Adam—played by Sarbajeet Das) is a security officer in an art museum. A woman (Evelyn—played by Reese Bucher), dressed in the provocative clothing of an anarchist and claiming to be an artist espousing subjectivity is about to give a sacred sculpture a penis with bright blue spray paint (she’s upset about the fig leaf covering the statue’s privates, normalizing it). Adam is clearly more interested in her than in the art. She’s interested in his shyness and his ineffectuality in trying to stop her. She gives him her number, by spray painting it on his blazer. They set up another meeting.

It’s Adam and Evelyn, get it? Like they’re meant for each other? The owl and the pussycat, to retread an older romcom reference.

Evelyn pushes herself into Adam’s life—she turns into a living embodiment of the kind of relationship redo championed in women’s publications (“How to Train Your Boyfriend”) with Adam’s willing cooperation and even encouragement. He loses a little weight and starts to become more active. He dresses better.

They get together with Phil (Adam’s former roommate—Jonathan Price) and Jenny (Phil’s fiancé). Evelyn doesn’t approve of Phil who is a bit of a show-off, and her disapproval causes Jenny to ask herself certain questions. At least Evelyn has raised her consciousness in a personal, not a political way. Another life improved, given our romance tropes.

In case you hadn’t picked up on the undertone of my analysis above, this is all going to blow up in these people’s faces. Spectacularly.

Neil LaBute’s play debuted in London in 2001. Paul Rudd and Rachel Weisz were Adam and Evelyn. The play was filmed with the original cast in 2003. As with many of LaBute’s plays and films it was controversial and popular at the same time. It fits very well with FTE’s stated season goal to examine how power works in our lives.

The scenery is spare but effective. Projection screens are freeform, angular, and white, as are all of the scenic platforms. Adding properties with a vista scene shows the change in location: bar, coffee shop, museum, apartment bedrooms. They all are indicated by the actors and physical and social arrangements. Everything fits together seamlessly.

The Allstate Community Theatre is a unique space, as I’ve said in every review. This set makes the one of best uses of it that I have seen. Its width and highly presentational space even works well for projected scenery. Projections can be effective (especially in shows that are pretty much about art). However, they have limitations. Projections hate stage light. Projections hate light with fuzzy edges, like LED stage lights without a lensing system. This has limited them in this space so far.

Onstage and projections need a lot of power, control, and most of all time for trial and error practice. Let me say that these spare projected scenes work, they work every time, and they work seamlessly to cover shifts of scene (ably handled by the scenic crew who work quietly and efficiently). My only issue that no one seems to be able to overcome is a dark area down right center where no face light seems to hit—for any show I’ve seen there. Now, I’ve said it, and I won’t mention it again. I promise.

But if the audience leaves singing praises of the set, that must be the best thing about the show, right? No, not quite. The best things are the performances. All the performances. The best acting for a show that blends representation and presentation depends on actors who find the characters inside themselves. The entire cast of four brings this quality to the stage in such a way that you could focus on any single character throughout a scene and know not only how the action is affecting that character but see how the entire group would be affected by their action. This is a truly high level of performance skill. I never had the feeling that the people onstage were any other people than their characters. Thus they resist typing and each character is the hero of their own story.

As Adam, Sarbajeet Das is a likable lost soul. His skillful playing of someone whose worth and intelligence is held back by massive insecurity is subtle. He’s no Big Bang Theory nerd played for laughs. You love seeing him grow more bold under Evelyn’s scrupulous grooming until he becomes assertive by the end. Das’s final moments let us know that even though he won’t forgive and forget he cannot bring himself to regret.

Bucher’s Evelyn is too likable, smart, perceptive, consistent, fun, and reasonable to be called a “monster.” She does use people for her own purposes which are frequently destructive to their present selves but if the outcome of her manipulations spurs others into personal growth? Maybe-just “maybe” she causes them to be stronger, more resilient, self-reliant, attractive, capable, and healthy. Does it justify the lies, deception, and outright manipulation by any means?

Phil starts off as everything that Adam is not: healthy, self-possessed, self-assured, capable, in internet-speak, a Chad. Maybe not very nice, maybe just a little too loud. He’s like the runner who gives his rivals a little backward shove before he starts his run to insure his own victory. (His treatment of Jenny irks Evelyn enough to sabotage their “underwater wedding” plans). Adam will never get ahead as long as Phil is there. Maybe Jenny won’t either.

Jenny is healthy, perceptive, eager to please, and socially adept, but these qualities are just the foothold that Evelyn needs in order to achieve her goals. Jenny becomes an instrument in her remaking of Adam, which in turn destroys her future with Phil. She achieves her own voice in the end but only gets there through trauma caused directly by Evelyn’s manipulation

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (and the later My Fair Lady) deal with almost the same issues and get to a more romantic ending. LaBute’s characters obliterate romance, but leave so many questions hanging in the air at the end. Maybe it’s more like The Lady or the Tiger.

Do the ends justify the means? It’s a question that LaBute (and the production) leave up to the later discussions. They do the job of posing the question well.

This review will be submitted after the production has closed, making it impossible for me to recommend it. You should have seen it.

Photos by https://www.facebook.com/BeStillPhotograph , published to Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=fredericksburg%20theatre%20ensemble

Dennis Wemm is a retired professor of theatre and communication, having taught and led both departments at Glenville State College for 34 years. In his off time he was president and sometimes Executive Director of the West Virginia Theatre Conference, secretary and president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and generally enjoyed a life in theatre.

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