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Praise for Neil LaBute
"The reigning prince of Off Broadway." --David Amsden, "New York"
"LaBute [is] the dark shining star of stage and film morality." --Linda Winer, "Newsday"
"There is something of the sinister menace of Pinter in LaBute's work (along with David Mamet, he is very much the heir apparent to that master)." --Hedy Weiss, "Chicago Sun-Times"
"A connoisseur of unsettling emotion . . . LaBute's psychological terrain is the punishing slippery slope of ambivalence. In his hands, this bedeviling state of spiritual stasis comes with a distinctive sound, a sensational hemming and hawing, which poetically betrays the mind boxing clever with itself." --John Lahr, "The New Yorker"
"Like a giant, mischievous child poking a dog with a stick, Neil LaBute delights in seeing what he can get away with. [He's] the bad boy of American theater . . . Dangerous and devastatingly funny." --Jumana Farouky, "Time"
"LaBute['s] judgment of his fellow men makes the Old Testament Jehovah look like a softie . . . his talents go beyond glibly vicious storytelling and extend into thoughtful analyses of a world rotten with original sin." --Ben Brantley, "The New York Times"
"There is no playwright on the planet these days who is writing better than Neil LaBute." --John Lahr, "The New Yorker"
Product Description
Neil LaBute burst onto the American theater scene in 1989 with his controversial debut work Filthy Talk for Troubled Times. Set in a barroom in Anytown USA and populated by a series of everymen (and two beleaguered everywomen), this series of frank exchanges explores the innumerable varieties of American intolerance. A unique snapshot of the times, the play--seldom allowed production by the author since--provides a compelling look at the early thinking and evolution of one of our great theater artists. Also in this collection is a series of new, short works, some never before produced. They include "Helter Skelter," which the Los Angeles Times called an "indoor Zoo Story" full of "existential whiplash" and "awash with crackling dialogue"; "The New Testament," a showbiz satire with a "cutting edge" (Hollywood Reporter) that takes a close look at the perils of color-blind casting; and "The Furies," in which a woman helps navigate her brother's breakup with his out-and-then-, perhaps, in-the-closet-again lover.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
great collection of plays... lots of opportunity for audition monologues also... whatever you buy of neil labute you just cant go wrong, great mix of shock, awe, pathos, brilliant comic writing etc
Format:Paperback
As the title warns, do not buy this book of plays unless you do not mind an abundance of swearing and less than decorous subject matter. That aside, this collection of plays is really fantastic. I had no experience with Neil LaBute's work until I bought this book, and the dialogue is pithy and fast paced, joking and hard hitting at once. He tackles subject matter that is dramatic, in a way that is shocking and hilarious. If you want a really challenging and rewarding selection, look no further.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Must Have For Fans
17 Jun 2010
Format:Paperback
I'm gonna be honest, I'd been looking forward to this publication for years by the time it finally came out. I'd heard the stories about Filthy Talk's first production and the infamous "Somebody kill the playwright!" line which had intrigued me from the start. Well, now, having read the title play I can understand what all the fuss was about. In it Labute explores many of the themes (fear and loathing between the sexes) that have continued to dominate his work to this day. Essentially, the play is a series of exchanges/monologues between several bar-flies and two waitresses, in a topless bar near an airport. What distinguishes Filthy Talk from Labute's more recent work is the scatter-shot structure. The play is more an exploration of theme than a story told (or a mosaic of many stories tolds), and the characters are cruel, vulgar and often hilarious. There's one particularly funny story about an ostencibly straight guy who has sex with a gay man in exchange for his missing wallet: "...I must've had thirty bucks worth of Arby's coupons alone in there..." Long time Labute fans will have fun finding bits and pieces of In The Company Of Men , Your Friends And Neighbors, and Bash hidden in the text.
As for the shorter plays in the collection: I Love This Game stands out as some of the most subtle, elegant writing Labute has ever done; the play focuses on a man who makes a careless statement at his son's little league game and winds up regretting the consequences. It's a six page meditation on the fragility of life that is simple, beautiful and absolutely heart-breaking. Oddly enough, I don't think comparisons to Our Town are entirely out of place here. The others move back and forth between dark comedies and darker dramas, with Helter Skelter (a grisly bit of Grand Guignol) effectively completing the collection.
All in all: If you haven't read Labute before and are looking to start, this collection is an excellent jumping off point, as you get a little of everything. And, of course, if you're a fan already, the collection is all the more essential. Happy reading.
As for the shorter plays in the collection: I Love This Game stands out as some of the most subtle, elegant writing Labute has ever done; the play focuses on a man who makes a careless statement at his son's little league game and winds up regretting the consequences. It's a six page meditation on the fragility of life that is simple, beautiful and absolutely heart-breaking. Oddly enough, I don't think comparisons to Our Town are entirely out of place here. The others move back and forth between dark comedies and darker dramas, with Helter Skelter (a grisly bit of Grand Guignol) effectively completing the collection.
All in all: If you haven't read Labute before and are looking to start, this collection is an excellent jumping off point, as you get a little of everything. And, of course, if you're a fan already, the collection is all the more essential. Happy reading.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Typical Talk for Labute Plays
21 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Oh. My. God. I GET IT! How many times can Labute write a play about men hating/loving women and women hating/loving men?! And the monologues, enough already! It seems to me that LaBute's go- to is monologues when he can't figure out how to get to the next moment or make a point. Exposition is necessary but it's Labute's crutch.
Filthy Talk for Trouble Times is nothing but a series of rants from strippers and patrons of a strip club. They're angry, they stay angry, and I feel angry at the end for wasting my time reading a play that goes absolutely nowhere. Yes, LaBute can write some amazing dialogue but this script is simply self indulgent on his behalf.
As far as the "other plays" go, you get some short one acts and monologues. B-Sides, at best.
Someone I know who has produced many of his plays for years told me that this play was a marketing scheme. For what, trying to wreck the career of LaBute? If so, well done my friends. Well done.
Filthy Talk for Trouble Times is nothing but a series of rants from strippers and patrons of a strip club. They're angry, they stay angry, and I feel angry at the end for wasting my time reading a play that goes absolutely nowhere. Yes, LaBute can write some amazing dialogue but this script is simply self indulgent on his behalf.
As far as the "other plays" go, you get some short one acts and monologues. B-Sides, at best.
Someone I know who has produced many of his plays for years told me that this play was a marketing scheme. For what, trying to wreck the career of LaBute? If so, well done my friends. Well done.
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