The Ugly One

Synopsis

Lette thought he was normal. When the extent of his ugliness is revealed he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. But after the bandages come off, Lette soon learns that there is such a thing as too beautiful. The Ugly One is a scalpel sharp comedy on beauty, identity and getting ahead in life.

Our Review:

13 June 2008

The Royal Court’s Upstairs/Downstairs season, reviving 2007 hits from the 80-seat studio in the theatre’s main house, launches with this return of Marius von Mayenberg’s comic 60-minute oddity.

Michael Gould is once again Lette, “the ugly one” of the title, who lives in blissful ignorance about his catastrophically ugly face until he’s excluded from a key business trip because of it. With his wife’s encouragement, he goes under the knife and, unexpectedly, attains a beauty that transforms not only his own personality but his relationships with all around him – and soon heralds a confusing army of surgically enhanced imitators.

In a welter of questions raised about identity, sexuality, narcissism and the nature of beauty, not to mention theatre, Amanda Drew and Frank McCusker also reprise a string of roles including Lette’s wife, a septuagenarian sexpot, a jealous assistant and a bisexual admirer, all bearing the same names, Fanny (for the female c...

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Latest User Review

joesmith - 25 June 2008:

Great writing, great acting, great production. Don't miss this. Another fine example of the renaissance at the court. ...

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