LaBute - The Way We Get By

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all plays in this book, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, the British Empire including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, are subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. The stock and amateur performance rights in the English language throughout the United States, and its territories and possessions, Canada, and the Open Market are controlled by the Gersh Agency, 41 Madison Avenue, 33rd Floor, New York, New York, 10010. No professional or nonprofessional performances of the plays herein (excluding first-class professional performance) maybe given without obtaining in advance the written permission of the Gersh Agency and paying the requisite fee. Inquiries concerning all other rights should be addressed to the Gersh Agency. This edition first published in the United States in 2015 by
Overlook Duckworth, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.

N EW Y ORK: 141 Wooster Street New York, NY 10012 www.overlookpress.com For bulk and special sales, please contact , or write to us at the address above. L ONDON: 30 Calvin Street London E1 6NW www.duckworth.co.uk For bulk and special sales, please contact , or write to us at the address above. Copyright 2015 by Neil LaBute All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. EISBN 978-1-4683-1654-4

THE MONEY SHOT A wickedly funny new comedy. Scott Foundas, Variety Fresh, joyously impolite a good and mean little farce. Linda Winer, Newsday 100 minutes of rapid-fire bursts of raucous laughter. Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld Packs a stunning amount of intelligence into 100 minutes of delectable idiocy. Hayley Levitt, TheaterMania Consistently entertaining To his credit, LaBute does not aim for the obvious metaphor: in showbiz, everyone gets screwed. Hayley Levitt, TheaterMania Consistently entertaining To his credit, LaBute does not aim for the obvious metaphor: in showbiz, everyone gets screwed.

He is more concerned with amusing us. Brendan Lemon, Financial TimesREASONS TO BE HAPPY Mr. LaBute is more relaxed as a playwright than hes ever been. He is clearly having a good time revisiting old friends youre likely to feel the same way the most winning romantic comedy of the summer, replete with love talk, LaBute-style, which isnt so far from hate talk Ben Brantley, The New York Times These working-class characters are in fine, foul-mouthed voice, thanks to the scribes astonishing command of the sharp side of the mother tongue. But this time the women stand up for themselves and give as good as they get. Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News LaBute nails the bad faith, the grasping at straws, the defensive barbs that mark a tasty brawl. Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post Intense, funny, and touching In following up with the lives of his earlier characters, LaBute presents another compassionate examination of the ways people struggle to connect and try to find happiness. Jennifer Farrar, The Associated Press Terrifically entertaining. Philip Boroff, Bloomberg A triumph always electric with life. Philip Boroff, Bloomberg A triumph always electric with life.

LaBute has a terrific way of demonstrating that even in their direst spoken punches fighting lovers are hilarious. completely convincing. David Finkle, Huffington PostREASONS TO BE PRETTY Mr. LaBute is writing some of the freshest and most illuminating American dialogue to be heard anywhere these days Reasons flows with the compelling naturalness of overheard conversation. Its never easy to say what you mean, or to know what you mean to begin with. Ben Brantley, The New York Times There is no doubt that LaBute knows how to hold an audience. Ben Brantley, The New York Times There is no doubt that LaBute knows how to hold an audience.

LaBute proves just as interesting writing about human decency as when he is writing about the darker urgings of the human heart. Charles Spencer, Telegraph Funny, daring, thought-provoking Sarah Hemming, Financial TimesIN A DARK DARK HOUSE Refreshingly reminds us that [LaButes] talents go beyond glibly vicious storytelling and extend into thoughtful analyses of a world rotten with original sin. Ben Brantley, The New York Times LaBute takes us to shadowy places we dont like to talk about, sometimes even to think about Erin McClam, Newsday WRECKS Superb and subversive A masterly attempt to shed light on the ways in which we manufacture our own darkness. It offers us the kind of illumination that Tom Stoppard has called whats left of Gods purpose when you take away God. John Lahr, The New Yorker A tasty morsel of a play The profound empathy that has always informed LaButes work, even at its most stringent, is expressed more directly and urgently than ever here. Elysa Gardner, USA TodayWrecks is bound to be identified by its shock value.

But it must also be cherished for the moment-by-moment pleasure of its masterly portraiture. There is not an extraneous syllable in LaButes enormously moving love story. Linda Winer, NewsdayFAT PIG The most emotionally engaging and unsettling of Mr. LaButes plays since bash A serious step forward for a playwright who has always been most comfortable with judgmental distance. Ben Brantley, The New York Times One of Neil LaButes subtler efforts Demonstrates a warmth and compassion for its characters missing in many of LaButes previous works [and] balances black humor and social commentary in a beautifully written, hilarious dissection of how societal pressures affect relationships [that] is astute and up-to-the-minute relevant. The Distance From Here, it seems to me, is a new title to be added to the short list of important contemporary plays. John Lahr, The New YorkerTHE MERCY SEAT Though set in the cold, gray light of morning in a downtown loft with inescapable views of the vacuum left by the twin towers, The Mercy Seat really occurs in one of those feverish nights of the soul in which men and women lock in vicious sexual combat, as in Strindbergs Dance of Death and Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Ben Brantley, The New York Times A powerful drama LaBute shows a true masters hand in gliding us amid the shoals and reefs of a mined relationship. Donald Lyons, New York PostTHE SHAPE OF THINGS LaBute continues to probe the fascinating dark side of individualism [His] great gift is to live in and to chronicle that murky area of not-knowing, which mankind spends much of its waking life denying.