Immaturity may reign among the four characters in Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty, but interestingly enough, the piece, which opened last night at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, proves to be one of this prolific playwright's most mature works, confronting not only a specific issue as it relates to one character but also a more generalized one as it relates to the characters as a whole.
A comment by Greg (Thomas Sadoski) about his girlfriend Steph (Alison Pill) sets "reasons" in motion. Steph's best friend Carly (Piper Perabo) overhears her husband Kent (Pablo Schreiber) and Greg talking about a woman at the warehouse where they work. Greg's comparison of Steph and this unseen woman may not be the most flattering, but they do represent a certain clarity of emotion on his part. However, Steph refuses to see it this way. She goes ballistic during the play's opening scene as she confronts Greg about Carly's report, and not long after, Steph's moving her stuff out of Greg's house, feeling only absolutes in her reaction to what's she's heard and unwilling to listen to either explanations or his expressions of love.
Even as these two deal with the dissolution of their four year relationship, Kent and Carly must weather some difficult times in their marriage as they prepare for the birth of their first child. This is an event for which neither seems particularly well-prepared. Kent's seems to be stuck somewhere in mid-pubescence while Carly, a security guard at the warehouse, runs her marriage and her friendships as if they were extensions of some sort of high school clique.
The lessons that these four learn (and don't) when set against the characters' working class lives and their expectations - which have been shaped by advertising, film and television (consumerism is cleverly represented by the huge flats of products that surround the playing area in David Gallo's scenic design) – are not easy ones. During the course of "reasons," each of LaBute's characters has the opportunity to enter adulthood by choosing to go against his or her more juvenile nature, which characters do, and how they accomplish this feat often surprises.
Unfortunately, while the characters and their situations fascinate, the play often feels overwritten. Monologues for each of the characters seem extraneous and only over-illuminate what has been expressed in scenes that have come before. Additionally, though Terry Kinney has elicited sterling performances from Pill, Sadoski and Schreiber, Perabo delivers a stilted and overly shrill performance as the mercurial and demanding Carly, which upsets the balance of this intriguing and often cutting look at four twentysomethings attempting to come into their adulthood.
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reasons to be pretty plays at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street). Tickets are $59.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-279-4200 or by visiting www.ticketcentral.com Further information is available online at www.mcctheater.org.
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