How would you interpret it if someone said that you looked "average" or "normal?" Chances are, you wouldn't take it well.
America's one−two punch of perfectionism paired with a deep−rooted obsession with physical beauty makes all of us — both male and female — want to be perceived as at least above average in terms of appearance. However, what brews beneath the skin−deep power of attraction as soon as it is taken away?
Playwright Neil LaBute examines this question in the context of young romance in his Broadway hit, "reasons to be pretty," which Tufts' Pen, Paint, & Pretzels (3Ps) have taken on as one of their two semester workshops.
The play centers around two couples and aims to show how the progressive breakup of couple Steph (junior Leah Bastacky) and Greg (senior Erik Leupp) affects their best friends, another couple comprised of Kent (junior Ross Beighley) and Carly (senior Eliza Earle). The play derives much of its power from its blunt examination of vanity, anxiety and the unacknowledged factors that comprise all social bonds.
3Ps picked "reasons to be pretty" as one of their workshops because they believed college students would be able to relate to the characters of the play, and because of the play's cinematic, melodramatic feel.
"I'm into indie Hollywood films, and this play speaks to that same kind of audience," the play's director, senior Thomas Martinez, said.
"When I first read the script, I was shocked to be playing myself," Bastacky said.
The piece takes unconventional approaches to its subject matter, and focuses intensely on realism.
Because Greg appears in every scene, Leupp had nearly 50 pages of dialogue to learn during the play's four−week rehearsal period. However, the realistic rendering of Greg's dialogue hardly helped: Clusters of "ums," "likes" and profanity added a natural rhythm to his lines, but — according to Leupp — also made the dialogue exceptionally difficult to accurately memorize.
Because "reasons to be pretty" is one of the 3Ps workshop productions, the stage is required to be minimalist, but said minimalism will likely accentuate the power of the dialogue; there will be no theatrical bells and whistles to distract from the play's underlying message.
On the whole, the play is dialogue−based, which is important because it is strictly through these conversations that the characters reveal their shifting relationships to one another. Interestingly, except for one very brief moment, no more than two characters are ever on stage or talking at any given point in the play. This unusual approach attempts to mirror reality. After all, people's deepest revelations about others will probably occur in direct, one−on−onedialogues rather than in a group setting.
"I think it's just so true about the interpersonal and romantic relationships, the miscommunications," Bastacky said about the play's unusual approach to realism.
Audience members may be surprised by the depth of "reasons to be pretty" because the play only uses superficial beauty as a launching point for deeper themes. As the romantic relationship of Steph and Greg begins to erode, deeper revelations about the characters' relationships to one another become more obvious. Indeed, as Martinez suggested, "reasons to be pretty" almost forces viewers to make assumptions about the characters, just so that it can prove them wrong.
"It's really about how we project our own thoughts on others' words," Martinez said.
In spite of the play's drama, it does also manage to be darkly, and unexpectedly, funny. In the middle of an argument, for example, Steph tells Greg, "Don't try to Lance Armstrong out of this one!" and promises to murder his goldfish if he dares leave while the couple is in the middle of an argument. Such humor saves the play from being hopelessly depressing.
3Ps will be performing "reasons to be pretty" tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. in the Balch Arena Theater. Admission is free and no tickets are required. .
