Reasons To Be Pretty completes Neil LaBute’s accidental trilogy on beauty and how our physical appearence affects others and our own perception of our selves. Whilst Neil was here for rehearsals we spoke to him about the play and tried to find out which of the characters he most identifies with…
Kieran Bew (Kent) and Billie Piper (Carly). Photo Keith Pattison
Reasons To Be Pretty is the third play in a trilogy. What was your inspiration, following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, behind writing Reasons To Be Pretty as the third play in that set?
I wish there had been more of an initial inspiration for a trilogy but Reasons To Be Pretty was first imagined as a singular work and it was only as I began to think about it in earnest that I saw the potential in its themes to build upon what I had already examined in the two previous plays. Once the idea was in my head, however, the structure, number of characters and the central male figure were all dictated by the format I had employed in the Shape Of Things and Fat Pig. As I was writing this final instalment in what I’ve now heard referred to as ‘the beauty trilogy,’ I began to see connections (both overt and otherwise) that I didn’t previously notice or at least acknowledge in those other stories, even though they too were concerned with body image and society’s fascination with the physical self.
Did you always intend to write a trilogy about societies’ preoccupation with looks, and what was the genesis of this theme?
I’m not a very good planner in any aspect of my life, so the answer is undoubtedly ‘no.’ I think my own interest in why people are so drawn to beauty and how that can be both a positive and a negative thing has always been there, at least as long as I’ve been writing on a professional level. That said, I did not anticipate that I would return to those themes three times over the course of a decade (along with a few shorter plays and/or essays that also touch on similar themes). I guess this either means that I’m tenacious and love to get to the heart of the matter or I need to get out more. Whatever it says about myself and others, I know that beauty (like young and power and money and health) is one of those commodities that continues to fascinate and attract most of us on some level, even while it confounds us in other ways. Keats was definitely on to something but ‘beauty is truth’ is only the half of it.
Tom Burke (Greg) and Siân Brooke (Steph). Photo Keith Pattison
Do you think the audience opinion in London will differ from the reception in New York?
Yes and no – I hope audiences will accept this very American sounding play on its own merits (as seems to have been my luck in the past) but I’m sure it may strike a deeper, richer chord with a home-town audience who feel even closer to the people and experiences that are portrayed in the story. In general I findLondonaudiences sophisticated and lovers of language so it’s great to put a play like this one up on a stage in that city but I loveNew Yorkcrowds, whether it’s at the theatre or a tennis match, and there is an energy there that is undeniable. I’m lucky to have productions in both of those cities and to prefer one over the other is a game I’d rather not play. ‘Good is good’ and I think that simple idea rings true to me – I’m in very good hands at the Almeida and so I expect the production to have a chance at reaching the best and widest audience possible at that venue.
In Reasons To Be Pretty there are four quite different characters. Who do you sympathise with?
I want to sympathise with all of them at some point or there’s really no reason for them to be there – everybody does what they do in the play based on a variety of reasons, some good and some bad, but I hope all of them (even ‘Kent’) is a recognisable human being and that, if even just for a moment, the audience is able to understand them and why they are driven to do what they do. It’s easy to hurl words like ‘bitch’ and ‘asshole’ around but I try to see what drives them to make the mistakes they do and what happens after that – that’s what I like best in a story, what comes after we falter or fail.
What do you want the audience to take away, most, from Reasons To Be Pretty?
Like always, I want people to have a good time, but by that I mean ‘my’ idea of a good time – the same thing I want when I go to the theatre or to the cinema. I want to be challenged and provoked and made to laugh and cry and get pissed off a bit. I don’t care if it’s funny or angry or tragic as long as it’s good. I’d love people to look at these working-class characters and see a little bit of their own lives up on stage; I grew up in a very blue-collar world and I have a healthy respect for people who work for a living, whether they like that work or not. It’s not easy and I try to give them a little bit of dignity and understanding in this play.
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