“Name the asshole who first invented mirrors.” – Neil LaBute

Theatre Review of Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty, by Theresa Thao Nguyen

            Even with all the kinks that accompanied preview night, Neil LaBute’s Reasons to be Pretty still manages to give its audience an uplifting and heartfelt experience at the Almeida theatre.

            With a small and intimate stage to work with, the production team created an ingenious set design, one that opens like a diorama on top of a rotating disk. Well-known American songs, such as “Somebody to Love” and “Fat Bottom Girls,” preset each transition depending on the following scene’s overall tone right before the shoebox-like set reveals a realistic slice of life. The choices made for the use of props are given considerable attention, from eating fruit with used napkins to adjusting a working clock between several scenes. Costumes are tastefully chosen too in order to emphasize a key theme in the play-- the effect of appearances on the collective human consciousness. The use of lipstick or the uniforms worn with the logo of a British manufacturing company ‘Cashco,’ for instance, reflect the conforming obedience to societal constructs for both practical and aesthetic reasons. Essentially, the play argues that yielding to a certain standard of looks has an overall negative effect on human relationships. 

            The play for the most part consists of a series of duologues, which revolve around the deteriorating relationships between two couples. Greg and Stephanie, played by Tom Burke and Sian Brooke respectively, fight over and eventually break up because of Greg’s rash yet misunderstood comment regarding Stephanie’s attractiveness-- that her face is 'regular.' Kent and Carly, on the other hand, whom Kieran Bew and Billie Piper play respectively, are both considered attractive and maintain a stable and ‘loving’ marriage... that is, if Carly, who is clearly pregnant, does not chance upon Kent’s secret affair at work. Thus, given that this play focuses on emotional affairs, its success relies heavily on acting that demands intense intimacy and vulnerability. That challenge was beautifully triumphed by these generous actors. 

            While both had a slow and rough start, Burke and Brooke portrayed their characters persuasively and earnestly. Though Burke’s American accent seems to unnaturally imitate that of Owen Wilson’s, he has an incredibly expressive presence on stage even when he says nothing. In fact, his way of communicating his feelings and inner conflict by means of simply responding to his scene partner’s words and having them truthfully affect him enables his characterization of Greg to authenticate his character’s transformative and mature outlook on life by the end of the play. Brook’s high-pitched voice may get some getting used to, but her great monologue that involves reading her complaint letter regarding Greg’s looks ultimately wins the audience over. Her hysteria and indignity comment on the universal injustice of feminine beauty in accordance to male standards. So no matter how big of a deal Stephanie makes regarding Greg’s single comment about her looks, her genuine disillusionment will keep the audience on her side. The woman's bitterness and pain thus inevitably make the case for questioning society’s absurd ideas of beauty and love (and who doesn’t want a change in that?).

            Furthermore, classically trained Bew gives a pleasantly surprising portrayal of Kent’s boisterousness and womanizing behavior. His ability to naturally convey physical gestures in tandem with the words he speaks is not only interesting, but also conducive to creating the momentum for his epic performance of cursing and raging at the audience (i.e. at Greg’s refusal to partake in his games any longer). Additionally, while there exists the temptation to portray Carly as one to be pitied, Piper instead portrays her as enduring and persuasive. Consequently, it's hard not to smile when Piper sweetly tries to uncover Kent’s infidelity through Greg, assuring him that if she “did everything [she could] do in this situation” then it would be “him who gets to go to Hell.” Without doubt does Piper convince us of Carly’s capacity to move on beyond the duration of the play even if the eventual discovery of Kent’s disloyalty is tragic.

            All in all, Michael Attenborough has directed an insightful production that reveals the importance of acting upon notions that supersedes arbitrary standards of how one should look and instead insists on the ways one should love, and how that love is of such individual and meaningful importance in everyone’s life. In other words, if you’re looking for a night out to get a one-night stand, go to a club. If instead you’re in need of an ego boost because you’re thinking of telling someone how much you love him/her, see this. Reasons to be Pretty might just give you that extra push; it will tell you what matters at heart.