Life
The Shape of Things to Come review: A play on deception
Neil LaBute's play morphs from rom-com into a tense and disturbing power struggle
June 8, 2023 14:04
2 min read
Neil LaBute's play morphs from rom-com into a tense and disturbing power struggle
June 8, 2023 14:04The Shape of Things
Park Theatre | ★★★★✩
Few plays can carry off the deception of appearing to be one thing but actually being something completely different.
But Neil LaBute’s razor comedy, which starred Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd when it premiered in 2001, is that thing. It bears all the signs of being a rom-com until the pride of one of its protagonists is shredded.
Adam (Bridgerton’s Luke Newton) and Evelyn (Peaky Blinders’ Amber Anderson) are twentysomething postgraduate students. She is an art major and he is an English literature nerd.
She exudes confidence, he emits diffidence. She is cool and attractive and Adam, well, he is neither. In fact, he could never imagine going out with a girl like Evelyn until, of course, he does.
Luke Newton (Adam and Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy (Phillip) (Photo: Mark Douet)
The relationship makes Adam more confident. His gauche demeanour is shed for a cooler look, much like his threadbare blazer, which is swapped for a sleek bomber jacket.
The transformation is so marked his friends Phil (Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy) and Jenny (Carla Harrison-Hodge) are dumbfounded to see that good ol’ Adam has gone up a league or three, becoming even as hot and desirable as Jenny.
The dialogue is right up there with Nora Ephron and the relationship’s compromises and dilemmas are as acutely observed as they are in When Harry Met Sally.
But then, just when you might think you have the measure of a play that seems to be primarily about romance it morphs into an examination of what happens when one half of a couple has more power in a relationship than the other half.
Carla Harrison-Hodge (Jenny) - (Photo: Mark Douet)
