Synopsis Adam is a non-descript young student who works part-time in an art museum and a video store just to pay his way through college. That is, until he meets Evelyn, at which moment his life changes. Evelyn instils a new-found confidence in Adam, making him feel better about himself by changing his appearance, helping him lose weight, and giving him fashion advice. Soon Adam is attracting attention he has never had before. But how far is Adam willing to go to make his relationship with Evelyn work? And how much will he change his perception of himself from what he used to be to what he believes he wants to be?
The ever-changing shape of things - not to mention the shape of people - which is the theme of Neil LaBute's new play, is immediately put to the test in the very theatre it is being staged in.
For in one of the more extraordinary surprises of this constantly surprising evening, the Almeida's new King's Cross performing space isn't what it seemed to be when Lulu opened it, either. The shape of this thing now has an audience seated on three sides around a wide, rectangular stage, rather than in a single steep bank in front of a deep stage.
Meanwhile, the shapes of the characters onstage appear to be mutable, too. When first seen, Paul Rudd's Adam is a nerdy, nervous art gallery attendant, sporting an ill-fitting corduroy jacket, dated haircut and glasses. In the course of the play, not only does the relationship he forges with art student Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) transform him emotionally, it also transforms him physically, both in the clothes he wears and even the nose he sports.
There's a central surprise to this relationship that makes it impossible to write about fully without giving it away; and it is simply too good to spoil. Suffice it to say that anyone familiar with LaBute's films - and in particular his first, In the Company of Men, and its brutal portrait of the moulding and manipulation of a woman by two men, will not be shocked.
But everyone who sees this should be intrigued and impressed by its brilliantly layered personality portraits that reveal how no one is what they seem or turns out the way they began. We are all of us, in any case, works in progress.
This theatrical riposte to the art installation work of Tracey Emin is hideously compelling and morbidly fascinating. And in the dazzling quartet of actors fielded in LaBute's own production, with scenes joltingly punctuated by the music of The Smashing Pumpkins, it is performed with a visceral urgency.
Rachel Weisz is the only Briton among the quartet, and the actress – who I've previously found more irritating than appealing - is at once both repellent and winning as Evelyn. Even better is Paul Rudd, at once made and manipulated by her. As the other couple, Gretchen Moll and Frederick Weller are tremendous, too, in a terrifically compelling evening.
Postscript to the above: for in the review above, please read '-'. What was formatted in MS Word didn't transcribe here. Apologies for any annoyance or confusion. fc - USER: Whatsonstage.com
07 Jul 01
About to deface a sculpture in a university museum, an art student is challenged by the student-guard who, attracted to her, ignores her vandalism as a valid artistic protest when she protests that a statue of God has been ‘defaced’ by the addition of a fig leaf. Their encounter develops into a relationship in which, in the guise of loving him, Evelyn encourages Adam to change his weight, his physical appearance, his fashion sense, his nose and his friends. Not bad for a financially hard-up student working in his spare time to pay his way through college. Unknown to him, however, he is the subject of Evelyn’s graduation piece an art installation documenting his transformation.
Although a compelling thesis, Neil LaBute doesn’t entirely succeed with the fig leaf he attempts to pull over our eyes: until Evelyn’s surprising disclosure of what she has been up to at her installation, this is little more than a varsity date-drama of indie movies with an intellectual gloss. Paul Rudd grounds the victim, Adam, with a truthful performance but as director, LaBute gave insufficient help to Rachel Weiss in her portrayal of a callous Pygmalion to Rudd’s ‘Gallatea’ it is really her psychological motivation we need to understand, yet it is never disclosed. And as arrogant as Evelyn, was the production with a curtain irritating and unnecessarily closing the audience off from the scene changes, overly-loud music, and a juvenile tease about whether to give a curtain call. An entertaining evening yes, but it is Giles Cadle’s set: a wall of pop-out sections which transforms into a multiplicity of locales, that makes the most impact. ~ faircomment@hotmail.com
- USER: Whatsonstage.com
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