Reasons To Be Pretty 2e3k1w

REASONS TO BE PRETTY by Neil LaBute

RESOURCE PACK

Introduction

Welcome to the Almeida Theatre’s production of Reasons To Be Pretty. When Greg is overheard itting that his girlfriend Steph is no beauty, but that he wouldn't change her for the world, a chain of events begins that sees his world and his relationships completely reshaped. He is confused and can’t see what he’s done wrong, but Steph is devastated: she doesn’t want to be with a man who doesn’t think she’s beautiful, whatever she may think of herself. Meanwhile, Greg's best friend Kent alternates between boasting about how gorgeous his wife, Carly, is and chasing after a hot new colleague.

Billie Piper Photo: Keith Pattison

Reasons To Be Pretty is the final part of Neil LaBute's trilogy about society's obsession with looks following The Shape of Things, which received its World premiere at the Almeida in 2001 and Fat Pig, which was a West End hit in 2008. Reasons To Be Pretty makes for a powerful finale to this body of LaBute’s work, taking a striking story about a breakdown in personal relationships and fuelling it with the potent issue of our very identity that pervades society as a whole. Reasons To Be Pretty examines our perception of beauty and asks whether it is as much of a curse to be conventionally attractive as it is to be considered ugly. It asks whether beauty itself is important, or if its import is in the judgment itself. In a world where appearances are used as benchmarks of achievement or at the very least the foundation of a judgment about who or what another person is, Reasons To Be Pretty questions the very judgments we make. It is a play as much about hearsay and misunderstanding as it is about trust and love - the elements that go into achieving that trust and love, the foundations of human relationships. We look forward to welcoming you to the Almeida Theatre and hope that Reasons To Be Pretty will entertain, challenge and inspire you and your students to experience further the power of live theatre. Charlie Payne Natalie Mitchell, EJ Trivett Almeida Projects

For more information about Almeida Projects and our recent work please visit almeida.co.uk/education

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Resource Pack: Reasons To Be Pretty

LEARNING AREAS

This Almeida Projects Resource Pack aims to provide an insight into our process of taking the production from research stage to performance. We hope you will use it to help you in your own investigations into the play both before and after your visit to the Almeida Theatre.

This Resource Pack is not curriculum-specific but may be of particular use in the following learning areas:

The pack is divided into four sections: the first contains detailed information on the plot and characters to refresh your memory of the play in the classroom. The second contains production-specific articles on the creative process, with exclusive input from the artistic team. The third section provides context by covering background material and themes from the play. The final section contains suggestions of practical exercises for drama teachers to use, to enable students to explore the play in further depth, in the classroom and beyond.

• Drama or Theatre Studies • English Literature This Resource Pack intends to supplement the academic study of by providing contextspecific information about the Almeida Theatre’s production of the play, covering the following areas: • Staging and world of the play • Production-specific research and context • Rehearsal process This pack will also contains the exercises included in Almeida Projects’ Introductory Workshop for Reasons To Be Pretty for independent use in the classroom and beyond.

Production Credits Production Synopsis Characters Plot Summary Design Interview with Designer

3 4 5 7 20 22

Neil LaBute LaBute on Reasons To Be Pretty Neil LaBute Interview In the Rehearsal Room

28 30 32 36

Beauty The Golden Ratio Scopophilia and ‘The Gaze’

43 45 46

Practical Exercises Script Extracts

47 50

Almeida Projects

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Contents

HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE PACK

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Production Credits

Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute Kent Steph Greg Carly

Kieran Bew Siân Brooke Tom Burke Billie Piper

Director Design Lighting Sound Casting

Michael Attenborough Soutra Gilmour Mark Henderson Fergus O’Hare Suzanne Crowley and Gilly Poole Penny Dyer Terry King Natasha Nixon

Dialect Fight Director Assistant Director Production Manager Company Stage Manager Deputy Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Costume Supervisor Wardrobe Supervisor Wardrobe Deputy Chief Technician Lighting Technician Sound Technician Theatre Technician Stage Crew Production Carpenter Set built by Set painted by Stage Management Work Placement

James Crout Laura Draper Helen Smith Annique Reynolds Fizz Jones Eleanor Dolan Charlie Damigos Jason Wescombe Robin Fisher Howard Wood Adriano Agostino Jack Harding and Tony Forrester Gruff Carro Miraculous Engineering Charlotte Gainey and Natasha Shepherd Liz Carr

ALMEIDA THEATRE Artistic Director Executive Director Artistic Associate

Michael Attenborough Julia Potts Jenny Worton

ALMEIDA PROJECTS Director of Projects Director of Projects (maternity cover) Projects Co-ordinator Projects Projects Assistant

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Samantha Lane EJ Trivett Natalie Mitchell Charlie Payne Sarah Tarry

Scene 1 Steph and Greg’s bedroom. They argue about Greg calling Steph’s face ‘regular’, reported to Steph via Carly; she is hurt and angry. Steph walks out on Greg. Scene 2 Break room at the workplace of Greg, Kent and Carly, a warehouse packing food. Greg tells Kent about his argument with Steph. Greg confronts Carly about telling Steph what she overheard. Scene 3 Café in a shopping mall. Greg and Steph are meeting for the first time since she left him. Steph reads out a long letter to Greg, in which she outlines all his physical flaws. Scene 4 Break room at work. Carly and Kent flirt. Kent tells Greg about his infidelity with the new girl, Crystal.

Interval Scene 5 The lobby of a restaurant. Greg bumps into Steph. Both are meeting people. They probe whether each other is on a date. Steph slaps Greg. Scene 6 Break room at work. Carly and Greg talk about Kent. Carly its she is pregnant and suspects Kent of having an affair. Scene 7 Baseball field. Greg tells Kent he will no longer cover for his infidelity to Carly. They argue violently and Greg leaves, refusing the play in the important ball game. Scene 8 Break room at work. Greg tells Carly to go home to ‘surprise’ Kent on his day off. Steph comes to tell Greg she is engaged to her new boyfriend.

NB: The printed text contains four monologues, one by each of the characters that occur as follows. These have been cut from this production of Reasons To Be Pretty, but are included in the plot summary for reference.

Production Synopsis

Production Synopsis

STEPH (between Scenes 2 & 3): She tells us that she is hurt, but she accepts who she is as a person. KENT (between Scenes 4 & 5): He tells us about the downside to having an attractive wife. He shows little respect for her ‘inner’ beauty or person. CARLY (between Scenes 6 & 7): She tells us about the disadvantages of being attractive, and knowing she is judged only on her looks. GREG (after Scene 8): He tells us what he has learned from the experience with Steph. He has gone back to college and feels he knows how to treat women better.

A detailed plot summary follows.


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Characters

GREG Greg works at a factory packing food, where he predominantly works the long night shift. He is friends with colleague Kent, and the two of them spend their breaks together, although the two men are very different. Greg is overheard by Carly defending his girlfriend Steph, who he believes is no major beauty but that is not important in his love for her. The misinterpretation causes Steph to leave him. Greg has high standards, but a tendency to drift along. He loves reading American classic literature and tries to better himself. In reality, he knows he has no real qualifications and that his life is not quite as he imagined it would be. He tends to step back and remain ive in conflict situations, which is often interpreted as apathy or nonchalance. Greg does not like to fight.

...the honest thing about this is, I think I’m a better man now, after Stephanie. I really do. Not, like, awesome or anything, but at least ‘good’, maybe. Greg

STEPH Steph is Greg’s girlfriend at the start of the play, but the opening scene sees them break up after Greg is overheard calling Steph’s appearance ‘regular’. Steph is not unattractive, but her looks are not what is important to her. She knows she may not be the most clever of people, and has no great qualifications, but she is happy with her lot and content within herself. However, she cannot bear to be with someone who does not find her attractive, as it gives her an insecurity complex. Steph works in a local beauty salon. She is good friends with Carly but not close to Kent. Steph has a tendency to over-react and can be quite argumentative, often pushing a point so far as to create conflict.

I'm saying, even if I was not cute, unattractive by world standards, don't I wanna be with someone who finds me beautiful? Steph

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Kent is Greg’s best friend. He is a chauvinist and values women predominantly on their physical appearance. He is often derogatory when talking about women. He lives with Carly, and he finds having a beautiful girlfriend can make him worry about keeping her, as other people are looking at her too. However he still looks at other women and is unfaithful. He does not think highly of Carly’s mind, but her looks are very important to him. He is a bully and tends to be arrogant and unkind. He is no intellectual and criticises Greg for wanting to better himself through reading; he thinks Greg thinks he is better than him because of this. He has recently been in trouble at work and wants to work more to earn more money.

I’ve got a job in some warehouse and a limited number of skills and a Chevrolet that I’d like to take a blow torch to... that’s my life in the foreseeable future.

Characters

KENT

Kent

CARLY Carly is Kent’s girlfriend. She is an attractive woman and she receives a lot of attention from men, which can make her feel uncomfortable. She believes that being beautiful can be difficult for a woman. She works as a security guard for the factory where Greg and Kent also work. She knows she is attractive to men and she can also be manipulative of people. She is not a very intuitive person, or academically minded, and can come across as insensitive towards other people’s feelings. She stirs up trouble (often inadvertently) between Kent and Greg. It is Carly that tells Steph about overhearing Greg say that she is not beautiful. Greg thinks she is a trouble maker and the two of them have never particularly got on well.

I'm very attractive. I am. I've always been that way but it's no great big deal to me--if anything, it's worked against me for most of my life. Carly


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Plot Summary

Siân Brooke and Tom Burke Photo: Keith Pattison

Scene 1 The play opens in the midst of a blazing argument between Greg and Steph, in their bedroom. Steph is confronting Greg about a conversation he had about her with his friend Kent. This conversation between Greg and Kent had been overheard by Kent’s girlfriend, Carly, who in turn reported what she heard to Steph. Greg is trying in vain to defend himself, but Steph is furious and presses him further, accusing him of lying, back-pedalling and concealing the truth of what he said about her: in short, she accuses him of calling her ugly. He denies saying the word ‘ugly’ itself. He tries to get out of the argument, wanting to go to bed, but Steph is relentless. She will be late into work, if it means that they get to finish the argument. Greg is confused and can’t quite see why Steph is so angry, he cannot see what he’s done wrong. He tries to explain to Steph how he saw his conversation with Kent. He also expresses his dislike of Carly, who he feels acts like a cop all the time, interfering. Everything Greg says winds Steph up more, and he is unable to placate her rage – he tries to quiet her down, fearing the neighbours hearing their argument. Greg finally recounts his version of events: Kent was telling him about a new girl at work that he thought was very attractive, and Greg agreed that she was pretty. Steph asks him if he compared her to the attractive girl; Greg denies this. He instead said that whilst Steph may have a ‘regular’ face, he wouldn’t trade her for a million dollars. Greg’s story confirms what Carly told her. She is hurt and angry that he thinks she is just ‘regular’, whereas e thinks of another woman as ‘beautiful’. Greg insists he meant what he said as a compliment, but unfortunately this is not how Steph sees it. Incensed, she throws an ashtray across the room at him, and storm out. Greg is left alone, shell-shocked.

Scene 2 At work, Greg and Kent are sat in the break room of their workplace, finishing their lunch. They are on the nightshift and it is just after midnight; they are both tired. Greg is explaining to Kent what happened the previous evening, his argument with Steph.

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Carly enters, wearing her full security uniform. She stops short when she see Greg. Greg explains that Kent is in the toilet. Carly sits down to eat, and Greg takes out a book and begins to read. Carly watches him and Greg tells her he’s reading a book by Poe. Carly doesn’t know who that is. Greg tells her the book is quite dark, but she takes him literally, and comments that it is night. Greg tries to explain but gives up. The atmosphere between the two of them is tense.

Kieran Bew Photo: Keith Pattison

Why'd you say it?! Right back at you, ok? Why would you ever say a thing like that about someone... and particularly a person you supposedly love. (BEAT) I'm sorry but nobody, no-body, even the most clueless of guys, is gonna make that kind of mistake. You were being honest.. Carly Scene 2

Greg approaches Carly, and confronts her about her talking to Steph. Carly denies doing anything wrong; she tells him that Steph has called her, that morning, because she wanted a friend to talk to. Steph said many things about Greg, and she was upset. She reveals that Steph had also handed in her notice from her job. Carly thinks Steph has every right to be upset with Greg, because of the things he said about her. Greg defends himself strongly, insisting that what he said about Steph was a loving thing. He tells Carly not to look so triumphant, he itted that he was sorry and apologised to Steph, but that she didn’t listen. Greg begins to get angry with Carly, as he thinks more is going on than she is revealing – it dawns on him that Steph has left him completely and is not coming home. Greg goes to grab Carly, but she shakes him off; then they both freeze as Kent walks back in the room.

Plot Summary

Kent begins to criticise Greg for eating an energy bar, and tells him to think more about his body if he wants to look good – if he gets fat, Kent says, it won’t help his chances with winning Steph back. Kent talks about the attractive new girl, commenting on her looks. Kent then says he is waiting for Carly, who’s doing a security round. Greg tells Kent that Carly annoys him – he feels that she ‘screwed him over’ by telling Steph what she overheard. Greg asserts strongly that he’d never go behind Carly’s back in that way. Kent leaves for the toilet and Greg waits for Carly to arrive. Alone, Greg clears up Kent’s litter.

Kent asks what is going on, and tells Greg to back off from Carly – he has done enough damage already. Greg and Kent need to get back to work, but before they do, Kent and Carly have a kiss and cuddle; Greg is forced to watch, uncomfortably. Carly leaves. Kent comments on Carly’s bottom, he thinks it is amazing. Greg agrees it is nice, but tells Kent not to be ‘such a dick about it’. Greg still thinks Carly has a bad attitude; Kent says this isn’t important, so long as she looks good. Greg apologises for things getting heated with Carly earlier. Kent says he is 100% behind Greg; he says he only put up a show of telling Greg to back off to give Carly the impression he was on her side. Kent actually thinks both Carly and Steph are behaving


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Plot Summary

stupidly, but he’s not willing to fall out with Carly, so that he’d have to cater for himself without her doing it. Kent pulls out a Readers’ Digest and Greg criticises his low quality choice of reading material – it’s essentially a TV guide, not a book. A loud buzzer rings calling both men back to work.

I'm not this person who gets off on looks or the more, like, physical side of men even, but when it's the other way around...shit, you know? It totally hurts. Steph Steph’s Monologue

Steph’s Monologue Steph talks about how she feels about what has happened with Greg. He has hurt her, because she believes he does not like her face. She accepts that she may not be a traditional beauty but that she is happy with how she looks. But she does not want to be with a man who thinks she is unpleasant to look at – or even worse, sits on the fence about her appearance. Whilst Steph says she does not find looks in men particularly important, but when she is in the situation where she’s being judged, it feels horrible. It makes her feel physically sick to think of her body being judged by Greg. She rejects the notion that Greg meant what he said about her to Kent as a compliment. She its that maybe she does not have that much going for her, as she’s not the most intelligent or beautiful person; but she is happy with who she is and she knows she has to protect that.

Scene 3 At a café in the shopping mall, Greg sits waiting at a table, checking his watch. There is a bunch of flowers on the table. After a moment, his mobile phone rings. It is Steph, as she is on her way to meet him.

But come on, I didn’t... Stephanie, let’s be serious here. Alright? Let’s. (BEAT) I said one little thing. A stupid thing, I know, I agree with that, but... it’s... Greg Scene 3

Steph arrives and they greet each other awkwardly. Greg gives Steph the flowers and she takes them. Steph tells Greg she needs to come to their apartment to remove the last of her things, and she wants him to be out when she does this. She is currently staying with her parents. Greg is calm and accepts this, offering to stay out of the way. He asks Steph how things came to this point. She replies simply that he said some unpleasant things, and their splitting up is the consequence. She is not going to forget about what he said or change her mind about this. Greg is very confused by the whole situation. Steph tells him that the situation has opened her mind to a lot of the faults with her life, a number of things she is unhappy with. She does not want to talk about this further with Greg. Greg suggests they go for lunch, but Steph turns the offer down. Steph becomes quite angry, rounding on Greg for thinking that everything is suddenly ok. Greg insists he really cares about her, believes she still cares about him and he finds all the situation baffling. Steph tells him to stop trying to put words in her mouth. She very clearly spells out that she wants Greg to leave her completely alone, to let her start again in a new relationship and move on. It is completely over between them. Steph begins to cry; Greg tries to move closer to comfort her but she pushes him away.

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I've never thought you had a great body, it's ok, but nothing really special and I hate how you walk around not just at home but outside during the summer or at the gym; a lot, anyway - like you are super cute or something, like you have all these muscles and a nice stomach or whatever, you don't. Steph Steph’s Monologue

Steph recover her composure a little and asks to borrow Greg’s keys to their flat as she has left hers at home. She removes the key from the keyring and promises to leave it under their doormat. She tells him she will also pick up her car while she is at the flat, so they do not have to meet again. Greg is making a good attempt at staying cool, which angers Steph further as she feels he is being very casual about it all. Greg tells her he does not know what he can do, or how he should act. He just wants her back. He makes a comment about ing cuddling her from behind them in bed and she interprets this as an insulting way, that he does not want to look at her face. He cannot say anything that placates her mood. She throws his keys back at him, hitting him hard. Angered and hurt, he tells Steph to get her ‘stupid face’ out of there. She is furious and takes this as confirmation that he has always hated her; she does not see it as a light matter.

Plot Summary

Tom Burke and Siân Brooke Photo: Keith Pattison

She takes out of her purse a letter she has written to Greg, that she reads out, loudly, whilst a small crowd gather at the spectacle. In the letter, she pulls apart his physical appearance, and criticises his looks, their sex life and many of the physical aspects of their relationship. She says she never thought he had a great body and how some of his manners annoy him. The letter goes into great detail about his shortcomings physically, and finishes with her feeling that he does not listen to her about any of this. Greg is dumbstruck, and asks if she genuinely means all of that. She says she means it all, but it didn’t matter in their relationship because to her, love is blind – she could feel all that and still love him. Greg is in denial that their relationship is completely over, that this is happening to them. He tells Steph he has always liked her face – it is really cute, adorable. Steph rejects the


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Plot Summary

compliment – it’s too late. She tells him she made everything up in the letter to Greg, but it hurts because he meant truly what he said about her. She screws up the letter and throws it on the floor. As she leaves, she tells Greg she is taking the television, which she bought with her own money anyway. Greg, left alone, picks up the crumpled letter from the floor and reads it.

Scene 4

Billie Piper Photo: Keith Pattison

One day they're gonna save a little time and just stick that in the dictionary. Just the word, no definition necessary, and any guy who stumbles across it'll just roll his eyes and know what the hell it means. (BEAT) “Women.” Greg Scene 4

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At work, in the break room, Carly and Kent are sat at a table, eating. Carly watches as Kent keeps checking the time. He tells Carly that he has a lot of work to do tonight and he wants to give it his best shot – as he is trying to get more overtime, he wants to be seen to be a good worker. He remarks that Carly likes the extra money. Carly retorts that everybody likes money. Kent says that is not true and Carly asks him to name one person who does not like money, and presses him to get to the point. Kent is trying to make the point that his working hard and well means they have more money to buy more things. Kent teases Carly and she tells him he is like a child; she becomes quite angry with his immature attitude. She threatens to go back to her station so she doesn’t have to see him. Kent placates her – his boss Rich has been keeping an eye on him lately and that is why he is watching the clock, to avoid any trouble; he would never pick work over Carly. Carly is duly placated, and they kiss and cuddle. Greg enters and they stop. Carly leaves instantly, without a word to Greg. Alone together, Kent tells Greg that Carly is angry with Greg because of loyalty to Steph, who it is revealed has moved away for a while. Greg takes out a book and begins to read; Kent asks him about it. Greg tells Kent that it’s Hawthorne – some early American Gothic literature. Kent grabs the book and inspects it. Kent comments on Carly’s actions, and the men console themselves on the unfathomable: ‘women’. Greg says he is fed up with women. He reveals that he has got his car back from Steph; Kent asks if she had caused it any damage – he would expect that she might do something like that after how she left Greg. Kent continues to check the time, and is clearly waiting for something; he is reluctant to reveal to Greg what this is. They discuss a company baseball game they are both playing in, but Greg is distracted by Kent’s anxiety. He presses Kent to reveal what he is waiting for, as he is clearly very on edge. Finally, Kent reveals that he is waiting for Crystal, the attractive new woman he has mentioned in previous scenes. He shows Greg a picture of her on his mobile phone, and reveals that he has been seeing her for over a month. He asked her out for a drink after she came to one of their baseball games. Greg is unimpressed and asks if Crystal knows about Carly. Kent tells him that it’s all


It's interesting, having a wife who looks the way mine does. Attractive, I'm saying. It really is. It's probably not what you'd think it'd be, all great and wonderful at every turn of the road; it has it's disadvantages, believe you me. Kent Kent’s Monologue

square with Crystal – that she likes the idea of competition. Kent comments on Crystal’s age – 23, and says her looks are only starting to fade a little, but she is young and has great skin. Greg chastises Kent for his attitude. He makes to leave. Kent swears him to silence, and Greg agrees, though his attitude towards the whole situation is aloof and unenthusiastic. He tells Kent to be careful, that he knows it is none of his business, as he has a lot of his own issues to deal with. Kent agrees that Greg indeed has a lot of problems at the moment and tells him everything is fine between him and Carly. In fact, his affair with Crystal is making things even better between them. He ires Crystal’s knockout looks, her beautiful face. Greg tries to leave to get back to work. Kent presses on iring Crystal’s physical appearance. Greg remains evasive. Once again, before he leaves, Kent swears Greg to keep his affair with Crystal secret.

Plot Summary

Kieran Bew and Tom Burke Photo: Keith Pattison

Alone, Greg tries to read, but he cannot concentrate.

Kent’s Monologue Kent talks about the issues with having an attractive wife – it’s not always as good as you might think, he says. Whilst he can enjoy her appearance, he also feels the pressure to keep her because all these other men will be having the same fantasy about her. He talks about his humiliation of having her work in the same place, as a security guard. She got the job, he its, partly because of her looks, as it was felt she gives a good first impression of the company to visitors. Kent actually thinks Carly’s job is a bit laughable and simple. He does not believe she could protect them or ensure their security, if there was a serious problem – she just carries a set of keys and a flashlight. The fact that they work in the same place also bothers Kent because he feels he has to constantly watch


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Plot Summary


himself, and who he’s talking to. He bemoans the lot life has given him – he has a menial job in a warehouse, a limited number of skills and he does not see much changing in his future. But he’s optimistic, and the events of late (implying his affair with Crystal), have brought some excitement to his life, and he is going to see what benefit he can make of it.

Scene 5 At a restaurant, in the lobby. Greg stands, waiting, checking his watch a couple of times. After a moment, Steph enters, walking fast. They see each other and stop cold. After a brief silence they greet each other awkwardly – they are at the restaurant separately and are very surprised to see each other. They clumsily try to establish why the other person is there, fishing to see if either is on a date. Steph tells Greg she is here with someone, but not anyone he knows; she remains cryptic. Greg in turn tells her he is meeting people from work, not a girl. Steph suggests she is meeting a man, but it is just dinner. They both remark on how they like the restaurant, and wonder why they did not come here when they were a couple. They reminisce on some of the places they used to go to together. There is a brief and awkward pause, where neither of them are sure what to say next. Steph says she should probably go back, as she was only visiting the bathroom, and doesn’t want to give a bad first impression. Greg is holding back, but it is clear he is uneasy with the situation of Steph being here on a date with another man. Steph tries to get him to it as much but instead he wishes her well and hopes she has a good time. Steph bats this away as ungenuine, criticising Greg for not being able to wish her well. Greg tells her he cannot find the right words, he is not deliberately being abstruse. Steph tells him she is trying to move on after being hurt; she cannot understand why Greg finds it impossible to be happy for her. Greg feels it is too early, as he is still hurting and did not want their relationship to end. He tells Steph to go back to her date and he can continue to wait for his friends. Steph insults him. She can see him judging her appearance and doesn’t like it. Greg wonders why she wants such approval over her looks. Greg says she looks beautiful tonight, but she did not dress like that when they were together, so it is an insult that she is dressed up so specially for tonight, whereas he is wearing his usual attire. Led on by this, Steph is suspicious and Greg its that he too may be on a date; he is being introduced to a new girl by some friends. Steph too, now that the upper hand is not all hers, is evasive

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Scene 6 At work, Carly is sitting at a table eating her lunch when Greg walks in. He has his lunch in one hand and a book in the other, with a pair of goggles on his head tonight. As he sees Carly he stops cold. He turns around about to leave but Carly calls his name. They greet each other coolly. She asks what he is reading; he tells her it is a book by Swift. He asks how she is, and she tells him she is tired from her long night shift but otherwise fine. Greg tells her she will get used to the routine. Greg asks after Kent, as he is not in work tonight; Greg reveals that he has not seen Kent very much recently. Carly tells him that Kent has moved over to working days; it is not as much money but he hoped to pick up more overtime this way. Greg is surprised that Kent did not tell him this.

Billie Piper and Tom Burke Photo: Keith Pattison

I'm trying to look pretty, alright?! I'm trying to make myself feel better because my former boyfriend - this guy that I gave a whole lot of my heart to - couldn't find me attractive and now I’m left wondering what's wrong with me. Why I was so unappealing to him... Steph Scene 5

Plot Summary

and cool. Suddenly, she reaches across and slaps Greg hard across the face. Then she glances around, feeling a bit ashamed. She apologises to Greg and tries to look at where she slapped him, but he pushes her away. Greg becomes angry and tells Steph she will realise what she had with him when her next relationship goes wrong and someone else treats her badly – she will hopefully realise that what Greg has supposedly done was not bad. Greg says that when his friends arrive they will go somewhere else, for Steph’s sake – and his own. He doesn’t want any more problems between them and their dates tonight. They part amicably – Steph wishes him a good evening and Greg tells Steph she looks attractive in her dress. She smiles as she leaves, and he watches her go.

Greg prepares to leave, but Carly invites him to sit with her. He insists he is very busy but Carly reveals she wants to talk to him. Greg sits and takes out his lunch; he says he is terrible at making it himself – as Steph always used to do this for him. Carly asks if he has seen Steph recently. He tells Carly about their two encounters, first at the café where she delivered her diatribe against him, and second at the restaurant where she slapped him. Carly is unsure what to say but then bursts out laughing. Greg feels humiliated. Carly compliments Greg’s sense of humour – she has always found him funny. Greg wonders at this compliment – Carly has not said three kind words to him since Steph left him, but now she is being very friendly. Carly wants to ask Greg something about Kent. Greg is a little uneasy. She reveals to Greg that she is three months pregnant. She and Kent are very happy about this. She feels many different things at the moment but she does not, somehow, feel safe. Greg asks her why, but Carly turns the question back at him. Greg suspects Carly does not trust Kent, and asks her about this. Carly its that a few little things have made her uneasy: Kent’s change of routine and how he is often out of their house when she calls him – although he says he is sleeping, the


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Plot Summary

neighbours have told her that his car is sometimes away. She has real doubts. Greg tells her not to worry about Kent, that it is probably nothing to be concerned about. Carly tells him to look her in the eye and say that he knows nothing is wrong, that Kent is not seeing another woman. Greg feels he has been put in a no-win situation; Kent is his friend, and he does not know everything that is going on when they are not together, nor does he know the inner workings of his friend’s mind. Carly cannot ask him about what Kent is thinking, because he is ignorant here.

I don't know why God had to make it so, like... hard to trust you guys. But he did. And it sucks... Carly Scene 6

Carly speculates: if she was to find some real evidence of Kent’s infidelity, such as a receipt, what should she do about it? It is important to her because she is carrying their baby. She asks Greg what he would do in that situation. Greg replies that he would ask outright for the truth, and be prepared to hear it. Greg is very uncomfortable and tries to lighten the subject. Greg congratulates her on the baby, and makes to leave. He knows Steph will be really pleased, and Carly confirms that she already knows. As Greg leaves, Carly again stops him cold, and asks him directly for the truth about Kent. She has found a receipt from a restaurant. Greg tells her that he was there with Kent that night, the same night he bumped into Steph at the restaurant. They were there with friends of theirs from the day shift who they do not see often – they were all men, eating together after the ball game. Carly wonders if Kent would say the same thing if she called him now. She suddenly bursts into tears, but then falls into laughter. She apologises to Greg – for her suspicions and her erratic mood. The scene ends with Carly wondering why God made it so hard for women to trust men.

Carly’s Monologue Listen, I’m not saying I didn’t get lucky in many ways, I do get that, I do, I just want folks to know that beauty comes with a price, just like ugly does. Carly Carly’s Monologue

Carly talks about being an attractive woman, and the difficulty that can bring. She believes it has worked against her for most of her life. She recounts an example of being followed around a supermarket by a man, who tried to talk to her and then followed her to her car, and then all the way back to her home. She found it upsetting and frightening, and it made her physically sick. She says this happens a lot. And she knows it is not because she is a clever or has a great personality: it is purely because of what she looks like, her face. Carly understands that people will think she is lucky for having a beautiful face, but she acknowledges that beauty comes with a price, just like ugliness does. She reveals that she has cried herself to sleep because of who she is, just as someone who is not attractive may have done. These thoughts occupy her mind a lot when she is at work, when on a very long shift as she has time on her hands to think.

Scene 7 At the baseball field, Kent is dressed for practice and is warming up with some stretches. After a moment, Greg

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enters and begins a half-hearted warm-up. Greg asks Kent about his new working hours, and wonders why Kent didn’t tell him before. Kent dismisses this – it is not like they are in a relationship. He changes the subject, saying how much he is looking forward to the ball game – it’s an important playoff. Greg asks Kent if he is happy, about Carly’s pregnancy. Kent remarks that’s she’s getting a bit ‘tubby’, though he will put up with it for now, so long as she hits the gym and gets back in shape straight away after the baby is born. He says that Carly knows this too – she knows that her looks are all she’s got going for her. He compares beautiful women to athletes. Greg changes the subject to ask if they have thought of any names for the baby. Kent reveals that the baby is ‘a fucking girl’.

Plot Summary

Tom Burke and Kieran Bew Photo: Keith Pattison

Kent thanks Greg for covering to Carly about Crystal, as it has given him the chance to carry on seeing her. He is enjoying the thrill of their affair. Greg is reticent and tells Kent that he does not think he can cover for him any more. He asks Kent not to ask him to do this again – it’s not that he cannot, but that he will not. He felt really awful when he lied to Carly and he does not want to be that kind of man. Kent twists the situation to implicate Greg as already in the thick of it, as he has already lied once to Carly, and he claims Greg helped his affair with Crystal happen in the first place, by encouraging Kent to ‘go for it’. Greg denies this responsibility, and asks Kent to make his own judgments on his own conduct. Kent tells Greg not to judge him, even though Greg denies doing this. Greg tells Kent to keep his problems with Crystal and Carly to himself – he does not want to know about them. Kent becomes angry with Greg and turns on him. They argue and there is a stand-off. Greg sizes Kent up but backs off. He is not scared, but does not want to fight, and is man enough to walk away from it, although Kent goads him on. He accuses Greg of being ‘a faggot’ and a coward. Greg is fed up with putting up with Kent’s attitude towards him – a decade is about his limit. Kent thinks Greg has not got the courage to do anything about this, as he is so desperate to be liked. He accuses Greg of thinking himself better than Kent because he reads clever books. The men fight, Kent grabbing Greg and pushing him to the ground. Kent moves to punch Greg but eventually just pushes him away. He tells Greg he does not care what he thinks. Greg is amazed that Kent would round on him, like a big bully. Kent starts insulting Steph, calling her ugly – he never understood what Greg saw in her. Greg warns him to stop, but Kent continues. Greg turns on Kent, and throws his glove at him. He takes his baseball hit off and walks away from the game, leaving the side a man down and at a disadvantage.


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Plot Summary

Kieran Bew and Tom Burke Photo: Keith Pattison

Kent is outraged and tries to persuade him to stay – their argument stays off the field. Suddenly Greg lashes out at Kent, throwing a number of punches that take Kent by surprise, and he falls to the ground. Greg gathers up his kit and leaves Kent in the thick of a violent tantrum.

Scene 8 At work, Carly is sitting in the break room, eating by herself. Her pregnancy is showing a little by now. She gets up to leave, as Greg enters with his book. He smiles at Carly and the have a short hug as they greet each other. Greg asks how she is feeling. She telly him she is feeling the weight of the pregnancy, and feels like the size of a cow, but otherwise OK. Carly asks after Greg’s black eye; he tells her it was caused by an accident. As Carly leaves, Greg tells her she is the most beautiful cow out there, and asks her not to forget it; Carly thanks him. After a pause, Greg asks Carly if she has any sick time built up to use. He suggests telling her supervisor that she is feeling unwell, and go home to surprise Kent. He suggest doing it tonight, right now. Carly studies him curiously, and then agrees. She leaves. Alone, Greg sits down with his book and begins to read. After a moment, Steph appears. She is dressed up smartly. She greets Greg and he tells her she has just missed Carly. Steph asks about what Greg is reading – it’s Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving. She reveals that she has come to see Greg, not Carly. Greg looks at her but she cannot meet his eye; she asks him not to stare at her. Greg replies that he likes looking at her, and always did. Steph does not believe this and Greg tells her that is just her interpretation and not true at all. Steph starts to explain why she came to see Greg, and he takes her hand – he has seen that she is wearing an engagement ring. Steph is very happy with her fiancé, and Greg says he is happy for her. Steph reveals that he is called Tim and works with computers. Greg tells Steph he is thinking about going back to school to get a degree, as he doesn’t want to work at the factory all his life. A loud buzzer calls Greg back to work.

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Greg compliments Steph’s appearance again and she thanks him. She tells him that it was hard to come to see him, to tell him about her engagement, but Greg was in her head the minute Tim proposed to her. She was so used to once being married to Greg, and maybe part of her is still hoping that Greg would sweep her off her feet to win her back. Greg reiterates that the whole drama of their relationship break up was caused by pure misunderstanding. That does not matter, replies Steph, because she feels breaking up was the right thing to do anyway. The incident and argument that ensued caused her to realise that their relationship was far from perfect, and would not have worked in the long term. Greg agrees, and although he loved her, believes they were drifting along. He is now searching for something different, a real change in his life. They agree on this. Greg tells Steph that their relationship was special, and it was never about physical appearance for him. Steph thanks him for this, but now she feels very special because she has a fiancé who lights up whenever he looks at her and makes her feel beautiful. Greg is happy for her, genuinely. As Steph leaves, they share a tender moment, where they nearly kiss. Steph begins to cry, but grabs her belongings and leaves. Greg moves to the window to watch her leave, in the car of her new fiancé. He sits down and begins to read again, but cannot concentrate. He rests his head in his hands, as a buzzer in the background calls him back to work again.

Carly knows that’s all she’s got going so she’s gonna take care of it. Her looks. Dude, beautiful women are like athletes: couple good years and then the knees go. Kent Scene 8

Plot Summary

Greg reaches over to Steph and touches her engagement ring. Steph tells him they have not set a date for the wedding yet. Greg hopes he will be invited. They ask each other how they are, in a friendly way. Greg tells her that he is no longer playing baseball with the team, and that he thinks he may have ruined Carly’s life by sending her home to surprise Kent. Steph thinks that is not the case – it will be something a long time coming and she will benefit from it in the long term; Steph thinks Carly will be fine because she is a strong person. Greg agrees, he has come to realise this too.

It wasn’t your face; I man, just so you know. I wasn’t ever this, like, ‘ass’ man or, some ‘legs’ guy… I like how you looked. Period. Greg Greg’s Monologue

Greg’s Monologue A final moment with Greg, in which he delivers a monologue directly to the audience. Greg talks about what he has learnt from the whole experience with Steph. He has learnt not only that beauty is just skin deep, but that it also may not actually exist – it is just a mirage. Beauty is something with no real value, and yet we chase it so intensely. It is just a small par of who a person is and should not be of any consequence, yet it is, and obsession with appearance pervades all of society. Greg tells us that he is now taking a


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Plot Summary


Humanities elective at college, and he recounts an experience he had in class previously. He was looking at a painting of Venus by Velasquez, and it made him think of the subjective power of beauty – how everyone has a different perception of what ‘beauty’ is. It struck him that this was what he had been trying to explain to Steph, that we should not worry about being beautiful because it does not matter; however he came across as the bad guy in the situation. Greg believes the truth is that what happened with Steph has made him a better, improved person. He has become less judgmental about people and he knows how to treat women better. A bell rings in the background and Greg checks his watch. He reveals that Steph got married two weeks ago, and he was invited. He sat with Carly and her daughter. Kent did not attend. He remarks that Steph looked great and glowing walking up the aisle, and they shared a moment where they locked eye . As she ed him, he whispered to her that she looked really pretty, and her eyes thanked him. He wonders that what he really has taken from the break up with Steph is the realisation that taking time to be nice to people is so important because life really is too short. The play ends with Greg confirming his belief that it does not take much effort to be kind to people every once in a while.

We all have a different perception of what real beauty is. Isn’t that funny? He’s saying it’s subjective and that none of us are wrong…it’s just about personal feelings and stuff. And, see that’s all I was ever trying to say to Steph. Greg Scene 12

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Design

Design is one of the most thrilling aspects of theatre craft. The look of a show helps to set mood, atmosphere, time and place. Design elements for any production include set, lighting, sound and music. At the Almeida Theatre the set design is the first and last thing the audience sees. As soon as the audience enters they can see the set and this, together with any sound effects, or music, will begin to determine how they will experience the production. This initial impression helps to set the tone for the story to come. The designer, therefore, has to consider what impression he wants to make on the audience before the play begins. The designer will look for clues in the play text and will liaise with the director and the playwright about these. There are also practical considerations for the designer, such as how big the stage is; what kind of flexibility is required in of entrances and exits; and whether the play is set in a specific time period. The designer often has to be very creative deg a set which calls for several different locations. Deg for the Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre was not purpose-built as a theatre so does not have the specialised architectural features which typify most purpose-built performance venues: a flytower, orchestra pit, wings, offstage area (indeed our ‘back stage’ is actually ‘sub-stage’ in the excavated basement directly below the stage floor). This means that our designers and production teams have to come up with ingenious solutions to create innovative sets in our ‘found space’. The building is famous for its large curved brick wall at the back of the stage. This feature of the building is used as part of the set design for many of the Almeida’s productions. Even when the actual wall is not visible in the set, the brickwork is often echoed as a feature in the design. Resource Pack: Reasons To Be Pretty

Almeida Theatre - empty stage Photo: Lara Platman

A BRIEF HISTORY: The Almeida Theatre seats 325 people, and re-opened in 2003 after extensive refurbishment. The building dates back to 1837, and was originally the Islington Scientific and Literary Institution. During the war it was used as a Salvation Army Citadel, and was later a toy factory, before it was converted into a theatre in the late 1970s.

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Design Reasons To Be Pretty Set - Break Room Model Box Photo: Soutra Gilmour

The set for Reasons To Be Pretty is designed by Soutra Gilmour. At the start of rehearsals, designer Soutra Gilmour spoke to us about her design for Reasons To Be Pretty, explaining her inspiration behind the look and feel she has created for the production. In creating a design, the designer and director will have lengthy discussions about what they want the set design to achieve, and the designer will bear in mind both practical and thematic or aesthetic qualities to reach the end result. In deg the set for Reasons To Be Pretty, Soutra had three main considerations that she perceived the design needed to deal with. These were: practicality; visual balance; and meaning in relation to the play. The first, practicality, is a common feature of all Almeida Theatre designs, and a major concern for all designers working at the theatre. With no wing space, the Almeida stage places restrictions on a design especially if multiple locations are needed; and the action of Reasons To Be Pretty shifts between a number of environments, between twelve relatively short scenes. There is a strong element of televisuality about the script, in this sense, and the design therefore needed to facilitate fluidity of movement between scenes and a set that could move between separate spaces effectively and smoothly. Reasons To Be Pretty, like much of LaBute’s work, is a fast-moving, up-tempo play with quick-fire dialogue. The impact and speed of delivery is designed to take maximum impact on the audience, where ideas are developed in rapid succession, and the audience are constantly kept engaged and on their toes. For this reason, the need for the design to be able to absorb this pace is at its core. As much of the play is set in the warehouse where Greg, Kent and Carly work, the design took an element of this as its focus, placing a shipping container centre stage, amid a bleak and minimal background. The shipping container revolves, and can be positioned at multiple angles, to create multiple locations; furthermore, both parallel sides of the crate open out, revealing rooms inside – firstly Steph and Greg’s bedroom, and then repeatedly the workplace break room. This is both a space saving device and a facility to allow maximum variety of location. Additionally, pieces of set can be hung from or swung out from parts of the container to add further realistic detail – for example the mall café scene sees a serving hatch and canopy; the restaurant foyer gives us some greenery and glass detail. Whilst the container itself remains, ostensibly, a container, the detail added within and

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Design

outside is realistic, and particularly in the interior scenes, inside the container, draw the audience in, and a whole new space is delineated. Once the main outline for a design was established, further detail could be added; and Soutra’s second consideration was to balance the mundane ‘ugliness’ of this manufacturing or warehouse environment – the shipping container – with the beauty of the Almeida building. Soutra felt that the difference between texture and style would be further juxtaposed by making the container appear metallic, to contrast to the bare brickwork which is still visible. The set, apart from the container, is kept bare – aside from the other containers we can see in the wings, which add to the factory floor feel. It is almost positioned like an installation in the space – at once acknowledging the presence of the set itself, and the environment in which it is contained. The final consideration was one of ensuring the set itself bore some meaning in relationship to the themes and issue of Reasons To Be Pretty the play. To this end, Soutra’s design adds fine realistic finishes to the detail within each scene – down to the break room walls or the ornaments in the bedroom, the football field scoreboard or the chairs and tables of the mall café. These ‘gems of detail’ as Soutra termed them, highlight little spots of realistic beauty, within a largely symbolic, brutal and industrial-looking set, calling on the idea of beauty being found anywhere where you look hard enough. This idea is developed even further in the concept of having the shipping container ‘open out’ to reveal beautiful or comfortable environments within – beauty found on the inside. The crate itself is not actually on a revolve, but is moved by stage crew, alluding to the manual labour undertaken on a daily basis by Kent and Greg in the warehouse – whilst we only see Kent and Greg in relatively static scenarios, on their breaks, the movement of the heavy container reminds us the audience of the strenuous nature of their employment as blue collar workers, and its continual reoccurrence further reminds us also that this is what they do all day every day. All these three elements are crucial in the design of Reasons To Be Pretty and make the set more than just the place on which LaBute’s words are performed. Design can be an innately theatrical experience, enhancing and enriching a text.

Reasons To Be Pretty Set. Top to bottom: pre-set; bedroom (Scene 1); mall cafe (Scene 3) Photos: Soutra Gilmour


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Interview with Designer 23

Almeida Projects spoke to Designer, Soutra Gilmour, about her design concept for Reasons To Be Pretty,and the process of bringing it to the Almeida stage. Almeida Theatre: How did you approach the design process for Reasons To Be Pretty? Soutra Gilmour: For Reasons To Be Pretty, the design process started back in the summer. Originally I was talking to Neil [LaBute] about it. We’d worked together earlier in the year on his production of In a Forest Dark and Deep so we had an experience of working together and of knowing each other’s aesthetic. I suppose we have quite similar things we like and are interested in. In a Forest Dark and Deep was in some ways very simple because it was one space – one cabin in the woods. Coming to Reasons To Be Pretty was a whole different ball game. The first thing you’re struck by is the ‘multilocational’ quality of it. That’s something that you often get in a set, but there was something quite specific about the different locations [in Reasons To Be Pretty] – it wasn’t the kind of play where you could say, “OK, we’ll have an empty set and one chair in the middle of the room and we’ll just keep imagining a new space each time.” There was a sense that those spaces needed some of the kind of naturalistic detail – of the coffee machine in the break room, the shelf with trophies – so that you had the context of each of the rooms. So I suppose the first part of the design brief to myself, was something that could allow us to do all of those things – and quickly, with fluidity, so as not to hold up the action. The second part of the brief I gave myself was how to make a play that had, theoretically, quite a Mid-West, modern, bland aesthetic sit in the Almeida with its old brick walls, and its beautiful soulful space. And how to make those two things make some sense together. I latched onto the core space in the play: the break room in the warehouse. Of course it could have been a modern air-craft hanger kind of warehouse, but because we were in the Almeida I chose to make it an old brick warehouse. The aim was somehow to use the Almeida as the shell for the whole play and then find a kind of unit in the middle that could keep changing, evolving. I collected lots of images – of all sorts of things, warehouses and industrial spaces. And then one of the things that really struck me, that I got excited by, was the idea of the shipping container and the fact that it was a sculpture that could sit in the space and make the whole space a warehouse. But also it has an interior, a room inside it, to allow it to become the bedroom, or the break room, all of the rooms that we needed. So I started with this idea of having this one single box in the space, with a concrete floor. Then I started to work on what might be inside the box and how the it might be used. Some of the rooms were easy: there was a bedroom and there was a break room. Both those spaces have quite big, unwieldy furniture objects. At first I wasn’t sure whether the objects would be inside the box, or whether they would pop up through traps. By working through the problems and what we needed in each scene, we realised that the inside of the box could be divided into our two main interior spaces: the bedroom and the break room. The break room we come back to four times in the play, so it would have been a complete pain to keep

The storage crate in construction Photo: Soutra Gilmour


So we’d sorted the bedroom and the break room, but then we needed all the other spaces which were more tricky – the café and the restaurant. So we started to find other ways of playing with the box: of pulling out canopies for the café, pulling out sliders with doors in them for the restaurant, using the simple box shape as the edge of the baseball field, so it acted as a porter cabin or a changing room at the edge of the field. The box also needed to move so we would have access to seeing inside the two rooms. So then we had the idea to have a manual revolve, operated by the crew on stage, so that it had that feeling of warehouses and manual work – so the crew are like people who might work in the warehouse. AT: How much have you been involved in the rehearsal process, with Director Michael Attenborough, and how has this affected your work? SG: Through the rehearsal process, we had to work out how not only the box moves, but how the actor find him or herself inside the box. Maybe they have to get themselves ready for the next scene as the box is revolving, or maybe a piece of furniture needs to be moved for the actor to access the access door in the box. As well as the actors inside the box, there were stage managers too, manipulating various things that were happening: popping up tables or moving things out the way so that access door into the box was free for people to come in and out ready for the next scene. So we then had to create this quite complicated scene shift document, detailing exactly what happens during every scene change. We wanted a feel that there’s a sense of surprise about how the box keeps adjusting itself, changing, or moving the scene on. Something that’s so simple in shape can allow us to be in all these different places, as quickly and efficiently as possible. Obviously the Almeida is quite a particular space – it’s quite tricky to bring lots of furniture on and off as there’s no wing space; and because it’s quite a light space even getting full darkness is quite tricky. It was about making those transitions as fun and interesting as possible. AT: Reasons To Be Pretty has previously been staged in New York. Did you see any of the previous productions? SG: I don’t really look at previous productions. It’s not very often that you would look at someone else’s designs. For new plays, you can’t; And for classic plays, there’s not much need to - you can envisage what other people might have done with previous Hamlets. But Reasons To Be Pretty is somewhere in between, because it is a new play, but not a premiere. This was quite specific – so I did look at past productions for this play, including production shots and photos of the model box from the New York production. It’s an interesting quandary: inevitably you want to do something different, but that could make you start doing things for the wrong reasons. You have to follow your personal reactions to the play – you might pick up on something someone has done – but that’s probably because it’s right. I think this is a particularly tricky play to design – which is why I was interested to see other people’s responses. And also it’s an American play set in a very specific part of the world that has its own aesthetic. I was interested to see how American productions handled that, because obviously it’s much more their part of the world than it is mine.

Interview with Designer

resetting a kitchen, a coffee machine and shelves of trophies. So it was brilliant to have it all stored inside the box.

AT: Does the writer or director ever say what they want you to pick up in the script – or are you given your own space to have your personal reaction? SG: All directors are different in of what they want from designers. In this particular instance, up to the point we got to the rehearsal room, it was very much driven by my impulses. And then from


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Interview with Designer 25

then it was very much the kind of reaction to things that I’ve done like, “could we have a bit more space here” or “could the restaurant feel a little bit more like an Italian restaurant?” So it was very much specific to the overall idea I’d given. Sometimes it’s the opposite – sometimes a director has some very specific images that they imagine throughout the piece, but they don’t necessarily know how to get from A to B – so your role is about making the arc between the images. With other directors, I’ve got an open book, and I can come with my ideas, my response to the script and start the dialogue from there. That’s great as it allows the most personal reaction to the work and therefore you’ve got the strongest connection The storage crate in construction - door detail to it. It’s very difficult for a designer Photo: Soutra Gilmour just to respond to someone else’s ideas, because they’re not inherent to you. AT: What is it like deg for the Almeida Theatre as a specific space? What differentiates it from other theatre spaces? SG: All spaces are different really. The hardest spaces are black spaces – that’s difficult in itself as it’s harder to respond to the room. I quite enjoy proscenium arch spaces – where the set ends and the theatre starts, with that whole relationship given by the threshold line between the audience and the stage. At the Almeida that threshold is a given: there’s not fixed stage, the audience wraps around the stage. But it’s also a sort of proscenium arch, but it isn’t hard here at the Almeida in the way that it can be with some more gold, ornate framings. What is tricky at the Almeida is that you can’t get away from the nature of the space. You can put anything in a black box and it will work – I’m not sure that’s the case with the Almeida. It’s got so much personality, such specific colour and architecture and such a particular relationship between the stage and the audience. I think you have to make a delicate relationship between those things and not sit something too incongruous against it. That’s my first reaction to the space - it’s my first time working here. AT: Even though the play has a Mid-West American setting, Neil LaBute doesn’t tie it to a specific town or city. Did that help you, or was it something to overcome? SG: When I first did the design I referred to those classic boring postcards of hotels and canteens in America in the 1950s. That classic, generic American architecture is what Neil was asking for, by not being specific. It’s fairly temporary, new architecture, that doesn’t pertain to a specific place - malls are the same in Ohio as they are in Seattle or Dubai. Whilst on the surface, it’s a bit boring, it’s also very accessible and instantly recognisable, and sort of without class. I don’t know if that’s something Neil thinks about at all but it’s quite interesting in of our imaginings that America is a place with less class division. These are the kind of middle-of-the-range places that everybody goes to. They don’t have the sense of a poor part of town or a rich part of town – it’s just ‘the mall.’ It allows it to be recognisable America – which is useful for an English audience – it’s the place we imagine America to be. Even if, in fact, America is not that.


SG: It’s fairly basic maths. I always say that doing set design is a fascinating job because you’re totally a jack of all trades and a master of none! You have to know how to do a lot of things – like make models based on ideas, draw technical drawings, and when you first start you have to be able to paint and build things. But you’re certainly not a master of any of those. Through your career you learn more and more details about all of those things, but also more and more details about what other people need from you and what their responsibilities are. The set in construction - floor detail What’s absolutely amazing to me is, Photo: Soutra Gilmour as a designer, you’re probably the only single person who works with absolutely everybody involved in the production. It’s very rare, for example, for the director to have anything to do with the set builder. Whilst the director in some ways appears to be the person who’s holding it all together, it’s actually the designer who works with the director, the stage manager and production team – carpenters, set builders, painters, costume designers, the writers, the actors. This means you have an amazing eye view on the whole process which I think is one of the things I love about it so much. But it also means that you have to work out how everybody’s process works. The longer you work, the more you pick up the various skills bases and start to really understand what it is all those people need from you and how best to get what you need to do your job. So whilst absolutely you’ve got to know about maths, you don’t need to know about maths in the same way as a set builder does: I don’t need his sense of engineering – particularly on a set like Reasons To Be Pretty, which has complex engineering. I’ve got to know it’s going to work, and I’ve got to have a good sense of how it might work, otherwise it would be foolish to hand it over to the set builder and say “can you make that work please?” In the process of deg and model making – I’ve worked out quite a lot of how it’s going to function but then you go into the detail of that with the set builder. The set builders and I had a long session going through all the various issues, and then made all the adjustments we needed to do to the design to complement the engineering. SB: In this production, how involved are you in the costumes?


AT: You might imagine being a set designer is quite creative. But do you actually have to have quite a mathematical mind to work out exactly how things are going to work?

SG: Completely involved in the costumes – that’s my job, to design set and costumes. The thing about costume, particularly with something as modern and current as this, is that you very much discuss it with the actors. It’s got to be character-led, so I didn’t need to do drawings before rehearsals. At the end of the first week of rehearsals, I had a discussion with the company and talked through character details – the world of the play and the relationship to the characters. It’s to do with their emotions and personality – it’s not about whether they’d wear pink or green. From there, the Costume Supervisor and I go off shopping and then we have fittings where we’ve got a load of different things which we try out. It’s a process of elimination really. It’s completely different if you’re doing a period drama – then you need to design costumes and do drawings. In modern drama, we all


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know so much about the clothes: we know what clothes mean and we make choices about people all the time based on their clothing and we understand the language of that. It’s really key to make sure actors are really comfortable about who they are and what they’re wearing – and they know the character more than you. AT: How do you know when you’ve done your job well? What does it add to the production when you’ve done your job well? SG: It really depends on the production. You want the design to absolutely hold, enhance and frame the production, whilst absolutely not getting in its way, slowing it down, or overwhelming it. There’s the classic saying, “the best design is when nobody notices it”. I don’t believe that because I get excited by visual stuff: I do want to notice the design. I think it’s really important to have bold and exciting things on stage because it’s a visual medium. But absolutely don’t want it to hinder or get in the way of the action and fluidity of the piece. And you certainly want it to be a pedestal for the actors and the action, rather than the sculpture itself. AT: For Reasons To Be Pretty, are there any things that you hope people will or won’t notice about the design? SG: I hope we get from one scene to another really quickly! And that when we’ve got to each new scene there’s enough detail in it that you can be absolutely sure of where you are – that’s there’s a balance between getting enough stuff on stage, but we haven’t held up the action by getting too much on. I think that’s the tricky thing about this production – I want those transitions to feel fun and part of the action, but not to become boring or laborious or time consuming. AT: How have you approached the monologues, as part of the set design? SG: We’re using the box in three or four different ways for the monologues including Kent sitting on the roof for his. At that point maybe it’s a container, maybe it’s a wall, maybe it’s just a mind space. I think that’s one of the things that’s exciting about good design is that you create a space that’s transformable. So whilst this is absolutely a shipping container, at some points it becomes all these other spaces: it has that transformative quality. But equally just as itself – as the box – sometimes you can feel it’s there, sometimes it’s not. It’s just the right balance of real and unreal that allows it to become just the mind space for the monologues. That’s always the line you’re playing with in theatre – whether it’s reality or poetry. I think that’s really interesting – not least because we’re having a real experience in real time. There really is a box in the space, there is someone sitting on it, but we’re in an artificial narrative, which is not in the Almeida. The set has to allow you to fly with that, and not bog you down too much: it needs a lightness of touch.

The set in construction Photo: Soutra Gilmour

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Neil LaBute Photo: Bridget Jones

LaBute grew up in Spokane, Washington and studied Theatre at the Brigham Young University, Utah. While studying at BYU LaBute formed a friendship with actor Aaron Eckhart who has since appeared in a number of LaBute’s lays and subsequent films. BYU is known to be a conservative religious university, and several of LaBute’s plays that he staged there during the course of his studies were shut down by the institution. LaBute was not deterred by this and continued to write and stage his own work; indeed BYU recognised his talent, honouring him as one of the most promising undergraduate playwrights of his cohort. Upon graduating, LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London. He was also awarded a literary fellowship to study with the Royal Court Theatre.

Neil LaBute

Neil LaBute is an American playwright, screenwriter and director. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1963, he has been writing for theatre and film since the late 1980s.

LaBute now works across both film and theatre. He is well known for his multi-award winning 1997 film In the Company of Men. Although a number of his plays have been filmed and LaBute has worked as screenwriter and film director he still feels more at home in the theatre. As a playwright LaBute’s work is heavily dialogue-led, driven by manipulation of language. His work often displays quick-fire dialogue, rhythmic patterning and use of contemporary and colloquial vernacular. On the page, he is noted for his use of the slash ( / ), indicating where dialogue should overlap – thus mimicking realistic speech patterns. His dialogue is also distinctively American, although it is characteristic of him not to specify exact locations. Stylistically, LaBute has acknowledged that he was influenced by some of Britain’s leading playwrights such as Edward Bond, David Hare and Caryl Churchill. However, his writing can be compared strongly to that of his contemporary and one of his favourite American playwrights, David Mamet. Thematically, too, LaBute and Mamet bear similarities, in a concern with male/female dynamics in relationships in society, gender politics and political correctness. LaBute’s work, like Mamet, has often been criticised for its misogynistic overtones, and moreover, critics have noted he has a misanthropic leaning. Both these criticisms LaBute denies – he believes his work is concerned with uncovering some of the darker sides of human nature, holding up a mirror to the more unpleasant aspects of human behaviour. Reasons To Be Pretty is the third in a trilogy of plays concerned with society’s attitude towards physical appearance, following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, the latter of which received its premiere in London in 2008. This issue, of society’s unhealthy quest for physical ideals, is one that LaBute feels great concern towards, and has called it a ‘tyranny’ on society – both men and women. All three works explore controversial elements of this argument, about gender politics, what society deems it is acceptable to say (or not), and ultimately about the futility of basing judgments of people on their physicality.


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Neil LaBute

LaBute’s most recent play to be premiered in London before Reasons To Be Pretty was In a Forest Dark and Deep, which ran at the Vaudeville Theatre from March to June 2011. Like Reasons To Be Pretty, In a Forest Dark and Deep is also set in the Mid-West of American and also concerns the deceptiveness of appearance; yet it is rather more an exploration of truth and moral values. It also draws on the themes of sibling encounters and revisiting childhood that LaBute explored in his previous Almeida Theatre production, In A Dark Dark House. Neil LaBute has had a long relationship with the Almeida, and its Artistic Director, Michael Attenborough, where no less than six of his plays have had their World or European premieres. Reasons To Be Pretty is the third Neil LaBute play directed by Michael Attenborough.

Selected Plays 1989 1992 1999 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

2007 2008 2009

2010 2011

Filthy Talk For Troubled Times In the Company of Men Bash: Latter-Day Plays (2000, Almeida Theatre - World Premiere) The Shape of Things (2001, Almeida Theatre - World Premiere) The Distance From Here (2002, Almeida Theatre - World Premiere) The Mercy Seat (2003, Almeida Theatre - European Premiere) Autobahn Fat Pig This Is How It Goes Some Girl(s) Wrecks In A Dark Dark House (2008, Almeida Theatre - European Premiere) Reasons To Be Pretty (2011, Almeida Theatre - European Premiere) Helter Skelter/Land of the Dead The Break of Noon Premiere The New Testament Helter Skelter Some White Chick I've really enjoyed the time I've spent The Purple Marmoset working in film thus far in my career, The Furies Filthy Talk for Troubled Times but nothing feels like home as much In a Forest, Dark and Deep

as a theatre does.

Selected Filmography 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2006 2008 2010

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In the Company of Men Your Friends & Neighbors Tumble (Sundance short) Nurse Betty Bash: Latter-Day Plays (TV) Possession The Shape of Things The Wicker Man Lakeview Terrace Death at a Funeral Sexting (short)

Neil LaBute Interviewed in The Guardian, 2008


The following is an extract from Neil LaBute’s preface to Reasons To Be Pretty, in which he discusses some of the themes driving his writing of the play. Name the asshole who first invented mirrors. I’m not actually posing that question, as I could quickly find out on my own by using my handy Google button or whipping over to Wikipedia, but I haven’t bottomed out that far as a writer (or a human being) quite yet. I still like to look things up for myself occasionally, even cracking open an old leatherbound edition of encyclopaedias from time to time to get a piece of information. I know somebody invented mirrors – they exist, after all; no doubt someone’s ancestors are taking credit for the discovery – but I’m asking in a more general way, a sort of “Why did they bother?” Do we really need to see ourselves that clearly? Or at all? We see others for who they are – physically, at least – and yet we never actually see ourselves outright, always catching a glance in a window’s reflection or in the glimmer off a lake’s placid surface. But we want more. We want to know what we really look like, what people really think of us; if we’re pretty enough, good enough, the best. We are creatures of desire – we want all the time. It’s endless, how much we crave things – compliments and cars and lotto tickets (because if we win we’ll have a lot of money, and then we can get more stuff) – and so we work and spend time away from our loved ones, always telling ourselves that this is the way of the world and everybody does it and my kids want it, and so life slips away. You attend your school of choice (if you’re lucky), and you get your job of choice (if you’re lucky), and you slave away at it until it’s time to retire and somebody else takes your desk two days after you leave, and you go to Florida a few times, and then you’re done. Gone. What will you leave behind, dear reader? Something, I hope.

LaBute on Reasons

Tom Burke and Billie Piper in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

Every so often I think that all that’ll remain when I’ve left this place is two great kids and six inches of library space taken up by my published works. There is a lovely line in A. S. Byatt’s novel Possession that sums it up very well: “To a dusty shelf we aspire.” We writers stare into a variety of mirrors, studying the faces of people we don’t yet know as we make them up, working to create a series of believable psychological profiles for a bunch of folks who don’t really exist. I prefer it to life most of the time, as it’s much safer and a whole lot easier. These ‘people’ all seem to be the same as us, unfortunately – my Resource Pack: Reasons To Be Pretty

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LaBute on Reasons

flaws become theirs and their wants and loves grow out of my own, and suddenly I’m surrounded by the same miserable, lovely, lonely, sad, terrific people that I was escaping from in the first place. And all these characters stare in their own mirrors and wonder if they too are good and pretty and smart and liked. Or at least good and pretty and smart and liked enough. Am I just pretty enough? Enough to get by and not be laughed at, and to meet someone and be happy? All because we can’t be sure, having never really seen ourselves. Those damn mirrors are of absolutely no use to us, in the end. They tell us exactly what we wish to hear – everything, in fact, but the truth. What is it to be ‘pretty’? It’s not beautiful, and it’s certainly not ugly. Why do we care about it so much? Why do we get so caught up in what other people think? Probably for the same reasons we use Google and laugh along when somebody tells a joke that we don’t get and all continue to go into debt but keep these stupid smiles plastered on our faces. Because we’re deathly afraid of being singled out for being anything but normal. We go to high school for three or four years, but it colours our entire lives – we continue to live some version of its schedules and cliques for the rest of our natural days. In school we were all desperate to fit in and yet desperate to stand out; the rest of life is merely a variation of all that. It’s a deadly game of push-pull. If I could be anything but a writer – and I can’t, I’ve tried – I would be a braver person. One who just doesn’t give two shits about what other people say or think or feel; I don’t think that would make me callous or uncaring or stuck-up (to utilize a wonderfully high-schoolish word). I think it would simply make me hold my head up a little higher, look people in the eye for a bit longer, make my smile a little broader (and any picture of me will attest that smiling is not my strong suit). I hope this play makes a case for being yourself and standing up for what you believe in. For being brave. For making choices that are hard and adult and not easy. For going out and being a part of the world instead of a mere observer. I’ve written about a lot of men who are really little boys at heart, but Greg, the protagonist in this play, just might be one of the few adults I’ve ever tackled. The play talks a bit about our country’s (and, by extension, the world’s) obsession with physical beauty, but it’s really the first coming-of-age story I’ve written. A boy grows up and becomes a man. I suppose every writer has one of those stories to tell, and this one is mine. It also concerns a very blue-collar side of the work population, like the friends and family I grew up with. I know what a dead-end job is like. I know exactly what it’s like to be eating your lunch at 3:00 a.m. and feeling like life as you know it is now officially over. I have a profound respect for work and workers and communities who live from paycheck to paycheck. The worst day I’ve had writing is better than the best day I ever had working in a factory, and the people who do it, year after year, because that’s life, and food and rent and child must be paid, have all my respect. Writing is easy. Life is hard. It’s more than hard – it’s a bitch (as many bumper stickers are happy to point out for us). I suppose that’s why I like the person who spends more time working than on Facebook, the person who gets out there and lives his life rather than blogging about it or staring in the mirror wondering about anything so damn inconsequential as looks or hair or yesterday. The future is now. It’s time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late. Neil LaBute, 2008

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Almeida Theatre: Reasons To Be Pretty is the third play in a trilogy, focusing on society’s obsession with appearance. What was your inspiration, following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, behind writing Reasons To Be Pretty as the third play in that set? Neil LaBute: I wish there had been more of an initial inspiration for a trilogy but Reasons To Be Pretty was first imagined as a singular work and it was only as I began to think about it in earnest that I saw the potential in its themes to build upon what I had already examined in the two previous plays. Once the idea was in my head, however, the structure, number of characters and the central male figure were all dictated by the format I had employed in The Shape Of Things and Fat Pig. As I was writing this final instalment in what I’ve now heard referred to as 'the beauty trilogy,' I began to see connections (both overt and otherwise) that I didn't previously notice or at least acknowledge in those other stories, even though they too were concerned with body image and society's fascination with the physical self. AT: Did you always intend to write a trilogy about society’s preoccupation with looks, and what was the genesis of this theme? NLB: I’m not a very good planner in any aspect of my life, so the answer is undoubtedly “no.” I think my own interest in why people are so drawn to beauty and how that can be both a positive and a negative thing has always been there, at least as long as I’ve been writing on a professional level. That said, I did not anticipate that I would return to those themes three times over the course of a decade (along with a few shorter plays and/or essays that also touch on similar themes). I guess this either means that I’m tenacious and love to get to the heart of the matter or I need to get out more. Whatever it says about myself and others, I know that beauty (like young and power and money and health) is one of those commodities that continues to fascinate and attract most of us on some level, even while it confounds us in other ways. Keats was definitely on to something but ‘beauty is truth’ is only the half of it. AT: Do you think the audience opinion in London will differ from the reception in New York? NLB: Yes and no - I hope audiences will accept this very American sounding play on its own merits (as seems to have been my luck in the past) but I’m sure it may strike a deeper, richer chord with a hometown audience who feel even closer to the people and experiences that are portrayed in the story. In general I find London audiences sophisticated and lovers of language so it's great to put a play like this one up on a stage in that city but I love New York crowds, whether it's at the theatre or a tennis match, and there is an energy there that is undeniable. I’m lucky to have productions in both of those cities and to prefer one over the other is a game I’d rather not play. ‘Good is good’ and I think that simple idea rings true to me - I’m in very good hands at the Almeida and so I expect the production to have a chance at reaching the best and widest audience possible at that venue.

Neil LaBute Interview

Almeida Projects spoke to Neil LaBute during the rehearsal period for Reasons to be Pretty, to ask about his work play and his inspiration behind his new play.

AT: Reasons To Be Pretty is the sixth play of yours to be staged at the Almeida Theatre, the last being In A Dark Dark House in 2009. Did you always intend to return? NLB: It was very important for me to have this play presented at the Almeida - ten years ago I started the trilogy at the temporary home for the Almeida in King's Cross and it was a seminal experience for me. A brilliant cast and a facility that was completely unique allowed me to be a part of something really special. Fat Pig played in the West End, which was very exciting as well, but I really hoped to bring this last section of the trilogy back to the Almeida where it all began. I feel extremely fortunate to have Michael Attenborough directing my work again - he's now directed more plays of mine than anyone else in England (at least by someone who has actually paid the royalties). AT: What is it about the Almeida Theatre that you feel suits your work and makes it a good space? Resource Pack: Reasons To Be Pretty

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Kieran Bew in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

NLB: There is a wonderful flexibility to the space that has been there ever since I’ve been going there as a theatre student years ago and certainly while I’ve been working there. Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid set the bar very high for me and Michael has continued that tradition; it’s a space (like the Donmar) that feels both intimate and epic and that curved wall of brick in the back of the space is really something special to me. I can actually feel the history of the place when I’m in there and the ghosts, both theatrical and otherwise, are very present. I love the whole history of the theatre and I respect it more than most things in life and the Almeida just feels good to me, like a kind of home (but one where I don't have to do any lawn work). AT: Your work is known to be quite provocative, exposing uncomfortable truths of human personalities, yet this has been described as your most empathetic play, kinder - why is this? What has changed for you? NLB: Certainly nothing has changed in me as a person or as a writer - I think that what people noticed in the play was a greater sense of hope (which I think I’ve always had, whether you could notice it or not) and at least one major character (and yes, I mean a ‘man’) who finally acts like an adult for once. I've written a number of stories about ‘boy/men’, guys who can't or won't grow up and take it out on those around them in various ways, both comic, tragic and horrific. I always try to let the play dictate the ending rather than write something that I know might please the audience. I can't help it - I care more about my characters than I do for the people watching them. Not that I don't like people (I do), but I figure they're mostly adults and real and they can fend for themselves; my characters only have me to watch out for them so that's what I do. I listen and I write and I let them tell their story. AT: In Reasons To Be Pretty there are four quite different characters. Who do you sympathise with? Do you think the audience will feel the same way? NLB: I want to sympathise with all of them at some point or there’s really no reason for them to be there - everybody does what they do in the play based on a variety of reasons, some good and some bad, but I hope all of them (even Kent) is a recognisable human being and that, if even just for a moment, the audience is able to understand them and why they are driven to do what they do. It's easy to hurl words like ‘bitch’ and ‘asshole’ around but I try to see what drives them to make the

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AT: Are any of the characters autobiographical in any way? Or based on true stories? NLB: No, other than the fact that I had a number of really shitty, really hard manual labour jobs when I was a young man. I worked the midnight shift in a variety of factories and the like and it’s a whole different world out there, eating and lifting and being awake when everybody else you know is not. It's hard on the body and the mind and that was the backdrop I wanted to really bring to life in this play trying to deal with life’s problems when you feel like you’re sleepwalking through the day. The story and the characters were just figments of my overactive imagination. AT: The setting for the play is quite vague, both the location and the details of their workplace, what are the reasons for this? NLB: I wanted the play to feel as universal as possible - I often set my plays or films in landscapes that feel familiar without being too specific. I would like them to be resonant years from now as well as in the moment, but I also like the idea that someone is Cornwall and someone in Iowa can look at the town or the job and say “yeah, that seems real to me. I know that place.” It's not a matter of being lazy (well, maybe a little) but that's not where I put in my time or research - I want to delve into the psychology of the people rather than spend time making sure that I’ve written a photographic copy of a specific town or person or job. AT: How involved in this production are you? What is your relationship as a writer, generally speaking, with a production of one of your plays? NLB: As the writer, I try to be as involved as the director will allow me to be, especially with new material. When I'm not directing, I put my entire trust in the hands of the production's director as I know that the play is mine but the production is his or her vision of that material. with Michael it's easy to give over to his ideas because they're always good and we have a working relationship that is simple and secure; we're not afraid to say the truth and all we both care about is mounting a great show. I make myself available, I listen and speak when I have something to say and I watch all the time. I love a night at the theatre and when it's my own work, I’m doubly pleased (unless the audience hates it, in which case my evening is compromised and so I run to a restaurant and eat my feelings). AT: As someone who has worked extensively in film as well as theatre, what draws you particularly to the theatre? NLB: I am at my most happy and relaxed in the theatre - not just working or watching a show but actually just in the building. I won’t go down the usual ‘the theatre is a temple’ route (because that or any discussion about religion can get a little scary) but I like everything about my experiences in theatre. It's not for the money, believe me, so it must be a simple case of love. I feel creative and useful while in a rehearsal room or out on the stage and I enjoy being in the lobby at night, watching the audience slowly filtering in, not knowing what to expect. It’s a great life, even if it’s all an illusion and a series of elaborate lies. That’s what theatre is, in the end, when it’s really working: a perfect lie.


mistakes they do and what happens after that - that’s what I like best in a story, what comes after we falter or fail.

AT: There are four monologues in the play – why did you decide to include these, dramatically? NLB: I originally wrote the play with the four monologues that are currently in the play. When it was first produced off-Broadway by MCC Theatre they were intact throughout the run. On Broadway, however, as people (by which I mean ‘producers’) were worried that the show was too long and asked if we could try the show without them. I knew the story of the play would still be told if we removed these sections as they didn’t forward the plot so much as reveal character and, sadly, character is always the first thing to get jettisoned when you're trimming for time. Ironically, we eventually cut the monologues but added an intermission so the 'length' issue was negated. I like the monologues and


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Neil LaBute Interview 35

think they add tremendously to not just the four characters but to the thematic arguments in the text. I'm happy that Michael is considering keeping them in this production (with a few judicious cuts and a few bits tucked into the dialogue between characters rather than as part of the original monologues). AT: What do you want the audience to take away, most, from Reasons To Be Pretty? NLB: Like always, I want people to have a good time, but by that I mean ‘my’ idea of a good time - the same thing I want when I go to the theatre or to the cinema. I want to be challenged and provoked and made to laugh and cry and get pissed off a bit. I don't care if it's funny or angry or tragic as long as it's good. I'd love people to look at these working class characters and see a little bit of their own lives up on stage; I grew up in a very blue collar world and I have a healthy respect for people who work for a living, whether they like that work or not. It's not easy and I try to give them a little bit of dignity and understanding in this play. AT: What part of the writing process is the most rewarding for you? NLB: I love the writing process, the whole damn thing - I love stumbling onto an idea that I can't shake and finally starting to write it. I love going over and over it, trying new words and sentences, building the thing piece by piece. I love to re-write (some writers don't) and I'm pretty good at taking thoughts and criticisms. I adore having readings now - I didn't use to or just didn't do it but I'm a lover of that process these days - and of course seeing the thing come to life in the rehearsal room and finally on stage. It's in my blood somehow, I don't know why, but I love the writing instruments and notebooks and all of it. The printed script on the shelf in the bookstore. I'm a writer at heart, I'm lucky to have found a thing in life that I like so much and have the freedom to do it. I can complain about a lot of things (just ask me) but I rarely complain about work (well, not very loudly, anyway). AT: What advice would you have for any young person who wanted to become a playwright? NLB: Write! It’s the same advice that I read in a letter from Chekhov to Gorki and I’ve followed it for years (and told many students of my own along the way). It's so simple and true - if you want to be a writer, quit talking about it and do something about it. Shut up and write. Plays, sketches, poems, screenplays or what have you, there’s no recipe that beats the real thing. Put pen to paper or your fingers to the keyboard and get started. It’s actually one of the cheapest art forms to engage in as a person and the results are immediate if not immediately satisfying. It’s such a basic thing, in many ways: put some words together, see what you think. Move them around, try it again. Repeat. It’s not quite like that but almost. I’m not saying there aren’t good days and bad ones, but the pleasure I get from doing it, just the act of writing, is worth all the headaches and heartaches of it. Quit texting or tweeting or checking Facebook and write a five-page play, that’s my advice to any young person who cares to listen to me. It’s much harder and far more exhilarating than you might think.


Assistant Director Natasha Nixon gives us a unique insight into the rehearsal room, and talks us through the process from page to stage in her week-by-week rehearsal diary. Week 1

Carly’s getting kinda tubby but it’s sort of cute too. Never seen her with an ass like that before…I’ll put up with it, though. For now. Long as she hits the gym, like, day after she delivers we’re all fine. Kent Scene 7

The first week of rehearsals for Reasons To Be Pretty have flown by! That old saying, ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ certainly rings true as I recall being in gales of laughter for most of the week - the heady mixture of Michael and the cast sharing hilarious anecdotes in rehearsals and seeing Neil’s darkly comic writing come to life. Without any effort, I have found myself settling into my new home for the next few months, taking great pleasure in getting to know all the Almeida team and most certainly indulging in far too many croissants and flapjacks. Our ‘meet and greet’ was delightful and I found it humbling to see just how many people work at the Almeida and who make it such a welcoming and creative place. There was a crackling energy and sense of community in the room as Michael gave a brief introduction to the play and introduced everyone. He then handed over to Soutra Gilmour (the designer), who told us about the concept behind her design. I don’t want to give too much away so you’ll have to wait and see… but, there were gasps and wide-eyes in the room as Soutra explained how the design unfolds as the play proceeds… there’s a clue in there somewhere!

In the Rehearsal Room

Michael Attenborough and Natasha Nixon in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

Without further ado, once the extended Almeida family had gone back up to their offices, we sat around the table and had our first read through. When you hear the script out


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loud for the first time the effect is electrifying. Immediately, the different textures and musicality of the lines flood out as you tune into the actor’s own interpretation of their character. I felt incredibly lucky and exhilarated to be amongst such a talented bunch and I can’t wait to get stuck into rehearsals. After the read-through, we had a good chat about the script. Michael went into more detail about his working relationship with Neil, the history of the play and what really captured his imagination when he first read it. It resonated with me that although this is such a contemporary play, the issues it addresses are timeless. Namely, the difference between the image we project and the internal perception of ourselves. It is this tension and conflict between the two that we constantly find ourselves battling with; today more than ever as we are exposed to a plethora of external pressures that affect this relationship. The question is, how can we reconcile the two? Once we had all spent three days talking through the nuts and bolts of the play and felt clear about the characters’ journey and relationships and what a lot of these American references in the play really mean… we were ready to get it up on its feet and start from the top. Michael’s aim was to let the actors’ play and to plot through the structure of the scenes; it felt very liberating and organic. Already, I can see how these scenes are starting to take shape and I eagerly await revisiting them and making new discoveries.

Kieran Bew and Tom Burke in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

I have to confess, there is something incredibly seductive about this play, almost addictive... In the words of Mr LaBute: “We are creatures of desire – we want all the time.” Bring on week two!

It just isn't possible to feel that kind of, like, hatred--I guess that's what it is-- and still want to be with a person Greg Scene 3

Week 2 Whilst doing the crossword on my lunch break it made me think that it’s actually a good analogy to describe the rehearsal process! If we viewed the script as a crossword puzzle, in week two, with the help of the clues we answered from week one, we are enabled and informed to put in some more answers. I must confess; there have been a few ‘cheats’ with a couple of emails back and forth to Neil LaBute for some hints with the more cryptic clues! Nevertheless, as we dig deeper into the play more clues are answered and the puzzle is slowly but surely unravelling before our eyes. This week, we have been working our way back through the play revisiting the scenes that we

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touched on last week, developing the basic shape and starting to hone in on the finer details. Michael encourages the actors to play with sections of the scene and search for their own answers whilst at the same time feeding in notes for them to try. He is very approachable and versatile in his direction and the notes range from the abstract, for example what the temperature of the scene is, to the bigger questions such as, what the character’s agenda is and what tactics they are using, to the more technical notes, such as if there should be a pause or if the line needs to be ‘on cue’. Whichever type of note Michael gives, he never loses the wood from the trees and has a tight grasp of the story and the characters. We all feel very much in safe hands! All the guidance and from Michael in the rehearsal room is wholeheartedly received and embraced by the talented and brave cast who are working incredibly hard each day. This brings me onto the two special guests this week who have also given their : Penny Dyer and Terry King, the voice coach and fight director, respectively. Each of the actors had a one-on-one session with Penny who gave invaluable techniques and exercises to help with the Mid-West American accent in the play. Exercises such as hanging your tongue out or biting down on a pencil to the side of your mouth were the bizarrely wonderful tips to help relax the back of your throat and move the voice away from where us Brits like it, right at the front on our lips! It was fascinating to see how the accent


If you were pregnant - just go with me for a second here - imagine it and think it through with me... what'd be your course of action in a moment such as that? Of truth.


Tom Burke and Siân Brooke in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

Carly Scene 6

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affects the character and their body language. Terry, the fight director, came towards the end of the week to show us the tricks of the trade from giving someone a simple slap across the face to a good old pummelling! He started the session by asking what the fight or slap would look like if compromises for sightlines had to be made and from there, as if like magic, choreographed a painfully realistic stage fight and slap. We ended the week with a production meeting over lunch. This was a chance for the Almeida technical and design team to touch base with news from the rehearsal room and make sure we are all up to date. It is vital that we are all on the same page as whilst we are working in the rehearsal room the rest of the team are busy sourcing props and building the set; all to ensure that once we get into the technical rehearsals everything is in place. It is a huge operation, not to mention the marketing, press and istration team at the Almeida who are also working their socks off upstairs in the office.

Kieran Bew in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

It has been another fantastic week and we are all really in to the swing of things now. It’s thrilling to be making further discoveries and to find more of the answers to the clues each day.

Week 3

Can you imagine what he's actually feeling about my body, and this isn't about sex, not really, but just how he sees my legs or arms, any-thing. Steph Steph’s Monologue

The morning routine of nipping upstairs to get a coffee before settling down to a line run is securely set in place as we approach our mid way point in rehearsals. Discoveries continue to be made in rehearsal and feel just as fresh and vibrant as they did in week one. Scripts are being put to one side as the actors’ take the plunge in ing their lines and Michael is starting to cement the blocking and run the scenes. In spite of everyone being a little fatigued, everyone’s commitment (along with a few caffeine fixes) is breeding a second wave of energy to push the play through to the next stage. A highlight this week has been Neil LaBute visiting us in rehearsals from the states. He not only provided us with pearls of wisdom and thought-provoking suggestions about the script but lots of delicious treats from across the road to nibble on too - thank you Neil! It was fantastic to have him in the room and to see Michael and the cast light up with excitement and pride of what we have achieved so far. Of course, there’s a part of us all thinking – “what does he think?” but, equally, I imagine, Neil has also been thinking: “how are they all getting on over there?” since our rehearsals started. Neil was incredibly ive and collaborative by

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It’s rewarding to see how the scenes are gaining more texture as smaller details are sown in and the actors are released by letting go of their scripts. The history between all the characters, their relationships to each other and the world in which the play is set is really illuminated now. In particular, something that intrigued me about Reasons To Be Pretty when I first read it was what it means to listen and be heard. It’s fascinating to track what the characters listen to, what they choose to ignore, what they say out loud and indeed, what they decide to cover up. Humour, being a powerful device which all the characters use in order to cover up or disguise the truth. Never a truer word is said in jest as Geoffrey Chaucer reminds us in The Cook’s Tale: “But yet I pray thee be not wroth for game; A man may say full sooth in game and play.” We were lucky enough to be able to pop into the Almeida theatre and have an afternoon rehearsal in the space. This gave us a chance to imagine how it will feel and sound in performance and, I have to add, a massive buzz in thinking that this is where we’ll be in a few weeks! From a technical point of view, it was a great opportunity to be removed from our rehearsal room bubble and think about the articulation, sightlines and the relationship with the audience in the space. All of which were rich findings to bring back and use in the rehearsal room. As week four approaches and we near technical rehearsals and previews there is a healthy amount of work still to do but, a readiness to start running the scenes through and seeing the play as a whole. The safety nets and harnesses are all in place and now it’s time to jump!

Billie Piper in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

I see you looking at me - even now I can see you glancing down at my legs and all that crap... you totally miss me. My body. Steph Scene 5

Week 4


giving little edits and tweaks in light of what he saw in rehearsals along with educating us about baseball and certain pronunciations of profanities, which I’m not at liberty to write here!

There is a real sense of liberation and playfulness in the rehearsal room this week as the cast are no longer inhibited by struggling to their lines or hold onto their scripts, as the words gradually become second nature. Another freeing element which has enhanced rehearsals has been the infiltration of different pieces of costume and props being brought into the room. From handbags to handcuffs, taquitos to the rather fetching baseball ‘pants’ the boys have to wear, the rich tapestry of the play is coming to life and providing more fuel for the actors in development of their character.


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Bilie Piper, Tom Burke and Michael Attenborough in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

The main event of this week has been running Act One. Michael, Helen (the Deputy Stage Manager) and I gave no line prompts and left it to the cast to take responsibility and help each other through any wobbly bits or line stumbles. It is a great chance for them to see that they can hold their own, that they are clear and know the shape of the scenes as it’s not long now until they will be performing in front of an audience! Equally, it was invaluable for Michael and I to see the scenes run into one another and get more of a sense of the overall journey. It was brilliant to see the fluidity and rhythm of the text giving a feel of genuine history between all these characters. Only with this history does Kent (Kieran Bew) know how to win Carly (Billie Piper) round and Greg (Tom Burke) know how to wind Steph (Siân Brooke) up to the extent that he does! During the run of Act One, Michael wrote notes and after lunch (giving the actors a well deserved break and a chance to take a sigh of relief!) we had a note session and made a ‘shopping list’. The items on the list didn’t consist of what they may pop in their trolley as they go round the supermarket, but instead, were notes and moments that specifically needed to be worked through. It has become apparent that one of the most exiting and challenging aspects of this script is that in each scene very little is premeditated – it all arises and is revealed right in front of us. As a result, in rehearsals, to achieve that spontaneity, we have to be very clear about the journey and shape within the scenes from start to finish. It keeps us and will no doubt keep the audience on their toes too. The week continued with rehearsing scenes from Act Two as next week we shall kick off by running that Act before doing a run of the entire play towards the end of the week. Having seen snippets of the costumes, props, and a run of Act One we wait with baited breath to see Reasons To Be Pretty in all its glory. The play may well be a tale of unsyncronized ions but, as the clocks go back and winter approaches we are increasingly getting in sync, staying tight and bringing new light to the play each day. Do have a look on the Almeida website (www.almeida.co.uk) for our trailer if you get the chance. There are some snippets from the monologues in the play and it gives you a sneaky preview where you can meet these rich characters up close and personal!

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Our final week of rehearsals is upon us and we are teetering on the edge of getting this show on the road! As planned, the week started with a run of Act Two before spending the rest of the week running the play as a whole and working through numerous items on the ‘shopping lists’. The very first run was a delight to watch and it’s thrilling to see the play in its entirety and to really be able to tune in with each character’s journey. Only when all the scenes are patched together can we get the full impression of how the play is constructed and how each scene influences and colours the next. Having watched the scenes in isolation for the past four weeks it is easy to forget how this energy from running the play can propel it and push it further. It’s also a chance for the whole cast to watch scenes which they are not in and therefore unite elements in their character’s story – really useful. It’s funny to think we will be moving out of our rehearsal room next week. It’s become very homely! The rehearsal room is a sacred space and it feels safe; a place where offerings can be made and risks can be taken in a ive environment. By having even a small invited audience to our run throughs (made up of our design team and of the extended Almeida family) was nerve wracking for the actors. However, to have had friendly faces and an audience response – be it laughter or gasps – acted as a real boost and was very encouraging. Not only was our mini audience keen to see what’s been going on in rehearsals, it is vital that in particular our design team and stage management, can come to see what the play looks and feels like before our tech week begins. Ultimately, this will help their understanding of how the design can enhance and the play, along with suggesting to the cast how the set could be used.

Tom Burke in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

Behind the scenes, the programme for the show is almost ready for print, the set has been built and the costumes and props are being sourced and sown. To nab a line from the play, courtesy of Steph, “We are right where we should be.” There’s a tingling mix of excitement and nerves as we all prepare to move and set up in our new home at the theatre down the road. As My City comes to a close and the set is deconstructed, a new path is paved for Reasons To Be Pretty and the transformation of the Almeida will take place over the weekend as our set is installed and the lights are rigged. We can’t wait!


When I start dating again… I think I’ll be less judgemental about what a person is like. Greg Greg’s Monologue


Week 5

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Beauty

Beauty is defined as: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or object that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. But what is the history of the concept of beauty, and what does it mean for human physical attractiveness? The concept of beauty is studied as part of culture and the visual arts, sociology, social psychology and aesthetics. An ‘ideal beauty’ is an entity which is ired for its aesthetic perfection, and has features widely recognized to be aspired to by that particular culture. There is commonly an interpretative element of the the experience of ‘beauty’, as a given object or feature seen as in balance and harmony with nature; this evokes feelings of attraction and emotional well-being in the onlooker. However, this is a highly subjective experience and a subject of beauty may also be something that resonates with an individual’s person’s experience – hence the common phrase ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. A History of Beauty Trends and fashions in culture and aesthetics have also determined what society deems the conventional concept of beauty, and the ‘ideal beauty’ varies accordingly. However, although styles vary strongly across different cultures, research has found that there are a number of definite similarities in the human perception of beauty, and the standards of attractiveness across different genders and cultures do not vary significantly at their base level. Primarily, symmetry is a key determinant in the human perception of beauty – biologically, this may be because it innately suggests a lack of genetic or acquired defects. Whilst human beauty may be considered to be a composite of both internal and external qualities, historically, common traits of beauty feature humans who are relatively young, with smooth skin and well-proportioned, regular physiques. The earliest Western theories of beauty date back to the early Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras – and this period can still be said to define contemporary notiong of male and female beauty in western civilization. Pythagoras is now best known for his work on geometry, but he early on identified a strong link between mathematics and beauty; it was he who explored the golden ratio, finding that objects that fitted into this ratio were innately more identifiable as ‘beautiful’ than those that did not. Other philosophers also saw beauty as an aspirational quality of perfection: Plato held beauty to be the Idea above all other Ideas, and Aristotle linked beauty directly to the concept of virtue. In Europe, the Renaissance period saw the rediscovery of many of these ancient texts, and also works of art from the Ancient Greek period, depicting visions of the ‘ideal beauty’ as proposed by its philosophers. This led to a re-adoption of what became known as the ‘classical ideal’. However, in the Gothic period, this classical concept of beauty was rejected as sinful, as it was believed that only God could possess true beauty, whereas man is marred by original sin. This was in turn rejected as barbaric by Renaissance artists and disagreement between the two schools of thought lasted until the 19th Century. The Romantic period of the 19th Century saw artists, writers and philosophers increasingly interested in the concept of the true nature of beauty, looking at differences between its classical meaning and the notion of the ‘sublime’. The concept of ‘sublime’ sought to draw a line under the argument between Renaissance and Gothic artists, as sublime did not rely on symmetry or the same ‘mathematical’ standards as classical beauty – thus Gothic art could also be described as aesthetically beautiful, albeit in the sublime category not the classical. Also in the 19th Century, the scientific world also took an interest in the biological components of beauty, focusing on the concept of ‘averageness’. Charles Darwin was a pioneer in researching the theory of averageness, as he saw it as a logical evolutionary reason why humans would choose a mate with predominantly average (or common) features. The 20th Century saw artists turning away from all established notions of beauty, and towards an antiaesthetic, or drawn to the concept of ‘ugliness’ and physical asymmetry, largely propagated by the post-modernist movement. However, in recent years, many thinkers and philosophers have returned

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Beauty

Billie Piper in rehearsal Photo: Matt Humphrey

to the idea of beauty as ripe for exploration as an important human value. As science and visual technologies have developed, scientists have analysed the physical proportions of beauty using computer programmes designed to distill common traits. An important part of determining physical beauty is the notion of ‘averageness’, and it has been found that when images of human faces are merged together to form a composite image, the result is that the ‘averaged’ face is closer in perception to ‘ideal’ beauty. It has also been found that people respond more positively towards computer-generated mathematical ‘average’ faces than individual faces. In any case, the notion of beauty has always been an active force in determining human society’s cultural and aesthetic values, with human beauty a common depiction in popular culture and high art alike. Human Beauty and Physical Attractiveness Physical attractiveness is, technically, just an element of the concept of classical beauty, but commonly is a byword for beauty writ large. Physical attractiveness is that in a person’s physical make-up that is deemed to be aesthetically pleasing, and implies an element of sexual attraction or desire – though this is not always applicable, as humans can also perceive individuals as physically attractive without any element of sexual desire. However, in either circumstance, humans commonly are seen to subconsciously attribute positive characteristics, such as integrity, virtue and intelligence, to those who appear physically attractive. Physical attractiveness is a key benchmark common to all human cultures, and its perception can have a major influence on how people are judged in employment, social opportunities, friendship and sexual as well as long-term relationships. Many features are considered both attractive in men and women, and general patterns also have been found to cross cultures and ethnicities. In both cases, symmetry of the face is highly significant. It is thought that symmetry and its perfection implies healthy genetic quality. Biologically appeals to humans seeking a mate as a good inheritance in producing offspring. As a rule, research has shown that men additionally tend to be attracted to women with a balanced physique, including full breasts and lips, clear eyes, smooth skin and a low waist to hip ratio. They are also attracted by youthful features, longer hair and those shorter in height to them. Conversely, women are attracted to men


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The Golden Ratio

taller than themselves, with broad shoulders, V-shaped torso and a narrow waist. Facial dimorphism, the exhibition of traditionally ‘male’ features, associated with male puberty and exposure to testosterone, is also an important determinant of male sexual attractiveness – this means broad cheekbones, chiseled jawline and strong or developed brow. Body Mass Index is one area where cultures differ in of their perceived physical attractiveness. The Western ideal tends towards thinness in women and athleticism in men, however many other cultures idealise a plumper figure. It is also thought that, particularly in Western societies, women overestimate the value men place on a thin figure, as studies suggest that most men prefer women with an average body size. However, it is now speculated that thinness as a beauty standard is now a key way in which women judge each other, seen as a sign of independence, strength and high achievement. Socially, perception of attractiveness between the two sexes has not increased or decreased proportionally. Rather, modernity has put increased emphasis on the perception of female attractiveness, often seen in Western civilizations to be driven by a male ‘gaze’ in the popular media (especially through feminist readings of film and photography) and the increased objectification of women that results.

The Golden Ratio and Beauty Whilst it is difficult for anyone to define the perfectly beautiful face, scientists have indeed set down the standards of beauty by narrowing it down to a simple mathematical ratio, of 1:1.618, otherwise known as the Golden Ratio, Phi or the Divine Proportion. According to the formula, the Golden Ratio applies to the following proportions: 1. the width of the mouth to the width of the cheek 2. the width of the nose to the width of the cheek 3. the width of the nose to the width of the mouth. These facial proportions have been found to be universal regardless of raced, sex and age. This formula has been consistently found in all objects, not just the human face, that are considered beautiful. In mathematics, the Fibonacci Sequence is the whole-number system to approximate the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio dates back to the Ancient Greeks and the work of Pythagoras on the link between beauty and mathematics. In art, the Golden Ratio is often associated with the work of Leonardo da Vinci, in particular with his Mona Lisa. Many scholars have claimed that the face of the Mona Lisa directly exhibits the proportions of the Golden Ratio. Da Vinci was also a close friend of the writer Luca This image of American actress Jessica Alba shows the Golden Ratio in proportions on her face. Pacioli, whose seminal work on the Golden Ratio, entitled Divina Proportione (‘divine proportions’) was published in 1509.

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Psychoanalysts Jacques Lacan and Otto Fenichel were key in exploring the pathological human tendency towards scopophilia. From the 1970s, the term was borrowed by cinema psychoanalysts to describe the pleasures and other unconscious processes occurring in spectators when they watch films. Voyeurism is a more widely used synonym for scopophilia, although it may have rather more direct sexual implications. Voyeurism means deriving gratification from observing others in secret. Often the object of voyeurism is undressed or engaged in some kind of sexual or illicit activity. The key factor in voyeurism is that the voyeur does not interact personally with the person being observed. The phrase ‘Peeping Tom’, used to describe voyeurs, originates from the legend of the man who illicitly looked at the naked Lady Godiva during her ride. Pornography is the archetypal medium of voyeuristic desires, however much of the world of advertising draws on the same objectification. The proliferation of internet webcams, mobile video devises and the huge ongoing popularity of reality television (some even using CCTV footage as part of their ‘narratives’) have created a new cultural 21st Century arena of scopophilia. Big Brother is arguably the most voyeuristic of all reality television, and links back into the series’ title, taken from George Orwell’s 1984, a critique of the controlling power of the state via constant surveillance, and resulting restriction of freedom of thought and speech. Film-making and film-viewing have long been analysed as voyeuristic practices, as can also be seen in the act of theatregoing. Traditionally, the movie viewer (or theatregoer) sits in the dark and observes the activities of people on a screen (figured as a window) who appear to be unaware of being watched. Horror films in particular are strongly voyeuristic, in that they characteristically identify the viewer with the point of view of the monster. Alfred Hitchcock employed voyeurism and ‘the gaze’ as both core elements of his technique as well as key themes in his film, and particularly in his casting of attractive (often blonde) female characters. The most direct treatment of voyeurism is in Rear Window, where the main characters are a photographer and a fashion model, who together spend days spying on their neighbours – whom they suspect of having committed a murder – through binoculars from their apartment window. A key line in the film, ‘we've become a race of peeping toms,’ marks a direct link with photography and scopophilia, drawing attention to the viewer as direct consumer of voyeurism. According to the feminist film theory, ‘the gaze’ is about not just the subject matter of the film or the watching of it, but about the very cinematic ‘apparatus’ - the camera itself as well as its operator. The male gaze is seen to be dominant in Hollywood film in particular, although much American mainstream television can be seen to bear similar hallmarks. This largely reflects - or reinforces - an American societal preoccupation with physical appearance, particularly in women (beauty and slimness), but not excepting men (athleticism and physical fitness). The gaze suggests the apparatus (the gazer) is coded innately male, with the female (the gazed upon) becoming the ive ‘object’. In short, it suggests that in both subject matter and techniques of filming, movies encapsulate the desire of men to look at women. Women tend to become objectified through the process, with the emphasis on the ‘looking’ placing emphasis on the ‘looked at’, and reinforcing the importance of physical appearance and attractiveness in the value of the objectified woman. Objectification is an offshoot of scopophilia and the gaze. The person gazed at is objectified – treated as an object whose sole value is to be enjoyed or possessed by the voyeur. Objectification, particularly of women, is a common basis of ethical objections to voyeuristic practices, including the overly sexualised depictions of women in mainstream media. However, recent research suggests that females are becoming increasingly susceptible to viewing other females through a male gaze, and placing more emphasis on a female perception of beauty and personal value through physical perfection. A major objection to this objectification, whether by males or females, or for males or females, because it is seen to devalue the humanity of the person. Resource Pack: Reasons To Be Pretty

Scopophilia and ‘The Gaze’

Scopophilia literally means ‘love of watching’, derived from the Greek participles scopo- (related to watching) and -philia (love of ). Perceptions of physical attractiveness have a root in the human desire to look at, and experience pleasure from, people and objects.

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Practical Exercises

Reasons To Be Pretty deals with a number of themes that are particularly interesting to explore in the classroom, for example: image, relationships and masculinity. Below are just a few suggested exercises for use in lesson time to investigate these themes in further depth. THEME: HEARSAY Reasons To Be Pretty shows us the fall-out from an overheard remark made by a boyfriend about his girlfriend. She takes it as an insult, although this is not how he intended it to be taken. The clever thing is that we as an audience never hear the insult, we just see the consequences. The group should aim to these games when watching the play: Chinese Whispers and the way stories change each time they are repeated, and how it feels to insult someone.

Exercise 1: Chinese Whispers Duration: 5 minutes Aim: To introduce the idea of gossip and second-hand information, and to develop a group dynamic. Practical Exercise: Standing in a circle, select one member of the group to whisper a phrase to the person next to them, who will in turn on what they have heard, and so on, in the same direction round the circle. Once the last person has heard the whispered message, they should say it out loud. But does the original message match what was overheard at the end? The person choosing the original message should pick a phrase or term related to physical appearance, though should not be a personal or insulting comment. Evaluate: Were the messages the same at the start and the finish? Go back round the circle and try to identify where the message changed. What does this tell us about second- and third-hand information?

Exercise 2: Insults Duration: 10-15 minutes Aim: To act as an ice-breaker, a second warm up, and to physically explore the idea of insulting behaviour from the play, both enacted and interpreted. Practical Exercise: Participants should stand in a circle. Two volunteers should be chosen, and they should face opposite each other in the centre of the circle. The aim of the game is to insult your opponent, in the most exaggerated fashion possible. You may want to demonstrate this. Look to keep the insults silly and non-personal, rather than horrible. Each insult should seek to outwit the previous one. The rest of the group can decide who they think gave the better insults. Aim to keep each ‘duel’ short, so that each person in the group can have a go. Secondly, repeat this exercise but instead of using insults, the aim of the game is now to give the most over-the-top compliments you can think of. Evaluate: How did each round make you feel? Exhilarated? Embarrassed? Shallow? Guilty? Dishonest? Ask participants to imagine how they might feel if, as Steph, they overheard someone they cared about making a disparaging remark about them. What is the dramatic potential of insults - how can they be used for dramatic (tragic, comedic) effect? Do you think Reasons To Be Pretty is more comedy or tragedy?

THEME: BEAUTY AND IMAGE Reasons To Be Pretty examines the concept of beauty, and the difference between the way others see

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Exercise 3: Beauty and Image Duration: 10-15 minutes Aim: To encourage the group to consider the relationship between how others perceive us and how we feel about ourselves inside, a key theme of Reasons To Be Pretty. Practical Exercise: Divide the group into pairs. In each pair, both participants are playing the same character, but one represents the way that character thinks about them, and one is playing the image that other people see. For example a glamour model who is incredibly self conscious, or the elephant man who is incredibly intelligent and kind. The pairs should create a frozen tableau image that represents the two sides of this character. Share these images back and invite the rest of the group to suggest what each tableau might represent.

Practical Exercises

us, and how we feel about ourselves inside. When you’re watching the play, look for moments where characters are feeling very different form the way others perceive them.

In the same pairs, participants should now create a short scene in which the character they are playing has fallen over in the street - we need to see the two very different responses that character has, both the internal and the external. Share these scenes back and ask the rest of the group to make observations. Evaluate: What aspects are most easy to portray - internal or external? Why might this be? Which pairs were most successful at portraying both sides of their characters? Why might that be? Ask the group to look out for the characters in Reasons To Be Pretty when they watch the play, and consider which aspects of their personality are internal and external.

Exercise 4: Image, Relationships and Chinese Whispers Duration: 15-20 minutes Aim: In a continuation of the previous exercise, this asks the group to develop their character, and consider how relationships can be affected by arguments and confrontation. Practical Exercise: Put the pairs from the previous exercises into larger groups of six (three pairs, three different characters). In the play, everything that happens stems from someone telling their friend that they overheard her boyfriend insulting her. Each group of six is going to create a scene that


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Practical Exercises

includes two friends and a boyfriend or girlfriend - the friends are confronting the boyfriend / girlfriend about an alleged insult that has been overheard. , each character is still played by two people, portraying the internal and external reactions, so the group should think about the way each different character reacts in this situation, and how they interact with each other. The internal / external reactions should respond to each other and work together to keep the character consistent. Share the short scenes back to the group. Evaluation: How did the characters develop from the previous exercise? What do we learn about characters when we see them reacting with others? What differences did you observe between the reactions of the internal and external personalities? Which was most effective at conveying a) emotion and b) the story?

THEME: MASCULINITY Neil LaBute has said that he often writes male characters who, through the course of the play, do a lot of growing up, which is certainly true for one of the characters, Greg, in Reasons To Be Pretty.

Exercise 5: Masculinity - Men Growing Up Into Adults Duration: 10-15 minutes Aim: To think about what makes a good or bad teacher, and how they can be inspiring. Practical Exercise: In groups of four or five, participants will devise a short short piece of theatre that shows us a character growing up, through four or five life stages respectively. You can only use a maximum of one line of dialogue per character. Encourage the group to think creatively about the transitions between the life stages, using their full physicality as well as the dialogue - as well as thinking about the evolution of the male/masculine image over history. As a secondary exercise, you could divide each group of five into different ages of time, such as prehistoric, Victorian, contemporary modern and futuristic. Ask the group to consider what masculinity looks like at these different points in time. Share these scenes back. Evaluation: What were the similarities between the ageing process in the different groups’ scenes? What common traits were portrayed? Were there any stereotypes that the group felt hard to avoid? In of the exercise set at different ages, what outside factors affected physical portrayal?

Exercise 6: Exploring Text Duration: 30-45 minutes Aim: To examine the unique style of the way Neil LaBute writes dialogue, and how his writing develops plot and ideas. To allow participants engage with the script of Reasons To Be Pretty, raising points to watch out for when watching the play. You will need: Multiple copies of the script extracts from Reasons To Be Pretty on pages XX. Please note: some of the script extracts contain strong language, and teacher discretion is advised. Practical Exercise: In small groups, read through the extracts from the play, before choosing a short section to stage. Consider the different techniques you can employ in your performance, and also think about not over dramatising it as you present it. Share these back. Please note: a slash ( / ) in the dialogue indicates an overlap of speech, where the next line of dialogue should begin. Evaluation: Neil LaBute’s writing is very dialogue-led. What do you notice about Neil LaBute’s dialogue on the page? What opportunities and challenges does it present to the performer? What worked well in staging and what less so? Ask students to think about the scene they performed when watching the play at the Almeida Theatre.

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(from Scene 1) STEPH

What did you say that she heard and then called me about?/ Hmmm? What?

GREG

I didn’t…/ God…

STEPH

I’m telling you the truth about what I’ll do to you. I am.

GREG

Steph…

STEPH

Greg…

GREG

I really didn’t say anything! (BEAT) It’s not, I mean, did she say that I…? What?

STEPH

You don’t ? Hmm?

GREG

No. I mean, I was talking to Kent and we were laughing about stuff, about, like, I dunno—work and how this new guy who’s a real goof has been begging us to our baseball team so we’re joking about what ever and….that’s all./ Come on, Steph, you know how we are when we get…

STEPH

Yeah?/ What?

GREG

Just talking!! Jesus. Going on about our lives & situations and…/ Nothing! It’s no big deal, anything we said, and if she is gonna call you every time I open up my mouth over at their place, then I’m never gonna go there again! Alright? I’m not…

STEPH

And?/ Wow, bet she’ll be crushed.

GREG

I’m just saying…I’m sick of her acting like a cop even when she’s off-duty. She isn’t one, ok, she’s not./ She’s a—it’s basically like being a hall monitor.

STEPH

Fine then./ And so you’re talking…

GREG

Honey, come on…don’t be all…

STEPH

No, tell me. Tell me what you said.

GREG

I didn’t say any…

STEPH

About me. You said it loud enough for her to hear it, for her to repeat it to me in complete detail—verbatim, as you like to call it—so you can say it to my face…

GREG

Oh…fuck…

STEPH

Nope, that wasn’t it. (BEAT) Go on.

GREG

Stephanie, stop it…

STEPH

You want me to say it? How ‘bout if we do it that way—I say it to you and you tell me if it’s true or not?

GREG

I’m not, no…that’s stupid, so no.


Script Extract #1

Reasons To Be Pretty Script Extract #1

50

Script Extract #1 51

STEPH

You sure? Maybe it’s easier that way - treat you like a preschooler.

GREG

I don’t need anything to be easier, okay, I don’t…look, I’m not scared of you or about anything I said because it wasn’t a big deal; we’d had a few beers and maybe we’re a bit loud out in the garage where we were talking, but I didn’t say…shit.

STEPH

She was in the kitchen, Greg. Door to the kitchen was open. Voices travel. They’re made up of sound, case you didn’t know…

GREG

Yeah, I’m down with the basic scientific principles, Steph, thanks very much.

STEPH

And so she’s cooking up some ground beef for tacos on the stove and she hears you, plain as day, going on about me and there is no doubt in her mind—that’s none, no doubt of any kind—that you said exactly what she repeated to me…

GREG

I see. (BEAT) Over the sound of hot meat she can hear me talking?

STEPH

…awwwww, you’re so…/ You asshole…

GREG

I’m just asking!/ Don’t I get to ask any shit here or is it just a one-sided deal we got going now?

STEPH

Don’t be a complete dick, alright? Don’t. I know that’s your soup of the jour but, please, just give me a little…

GREG

Fine! So she can hear me talking—she’s suddenly like Wonder Woman or something and from an entire room away she hears me and what I’m saying to Kent as we’re out there banging away on his Buick. Is that it?

STEPH

You mean the Bionic Woman, not Wonder Woman—who had various powers but hearing wasn’t one of ‘em—I mean, of course she could hear, she wasn’t deaf, but not in any special way. The Bionic Woman had the super hearing…smart guy…

GREG

Whatever! You know what I mean…

STEPH

I do, yeah, that’s why I just corrected you on it./ Bionic Woman. Lindsay Wagner.

GREG

Great./ Thanks.

STEPH

Doesn’t matter, you’re just deflecting it again…yes, she heard you guys, clear as day./ Or a bell, or whatever…

GREG

Fine./ Okay, and? And?

STEPH

What?

GREG

What’d she say? I mean, that I said?

STEPH

Oh, so now you want me to say it…

GREG

If you need to so bad…

STEPH

I thought you didn’t want me to, thought you said it was stupid.

GREG

That was before…


(from Scene 2) GREG

I dunno. (MOVES TOWARD HER) Look, Carly, why'd you have to do that? Call Steph and make some big ol'...

CARLY

What? I didn't do anything...

GREG

...yeah, uh-huh, she's all...

CARLY

...I just...

GREG

You got her totally worked up and, and, and she's completely pissed, and now I can't even get her to take my...

CARLY

I'm sorry, but...she called me so you're the one with a problem obviously.

GREG

What?

CARLY

She did. On her way to work.

GREG

She called you?

CARLY

Yes. Twice./ The second time right from the parking lot of Super Cuts...

GREG

Really?/ Why? I mean...

CARLY

Because we're friends, Greg. Because she needed someone to talk to today, and...

GREG

Yeah, but...wait...

CARLY

...because I would never say such a mean and horrible thing to her, that's why.

GREG

Oh. (BEAT) I actually meant the first...

CARLY

So, yeah, she rang me up and we chatted, like friends do. We talked. (BEAT) About you, mostly.

GREG

And--I mean, then, what'd she say? To me?

CARLY

She didn't say anything to you--it was to me, ? Called me at home.

GREG

Right, right, that's what I meant...

CARLY

She said stuff to me. About you. Not very nice stuff, either. She talked shit about you, if you really wanna know. Ok?

GREG

Great.

CARLY

Yeah, lots of shit and cried a little...

GREG

...come on...

CARLY

I'm not kidding! (BEAT) Said she even put in her notice, so...there. Happy?


Script Extract #2


52


GREG

What?/ Really?

CARLY

Yep./ I'm not making stuff up to delight and entertain you. Your girlfriend cried on the phone to me and it doesn't matter who called who. It doesn't--she's not mad because her best friend had the...guts to tell her the truth; she is upset because of the things you've said about her...

GREG

Thing! One thing I said, and it wasn't a, like, some big...Godamnit, why'd you tell her? Huh? Why?!

CARLY

Why'd you say it?! Right back at you, ok? Why would you ever say a thing like that about someone...and particularly a person you supposedly love. (BEAT) I'm sorry but nobody, no-body, even the most clueless of guys, is gonna make that kind of mistake. You were being honest...

GREG

No, it wasn't meant to be a--I was saying a loving thing! (LOOKS AT CARLY)

CARLY

Oh, really...

GREG

I was.

CARLY

Well, I'd send flowers next time instead, maybe...'cause your communication skills suck./ The message was lost.

GREG

Fine./ Whatever.


(from Scene 7) GREG

...look, about that...you're...

KENT

Yeah?

GREG

I don't think I can, I mean, don't ask me to help out with that any more, ok?

KENT

What?

GREG

Your secrets there, whatever you're doing with that girl.

KENT

Crystal.

GREG

Yes, her.

KENT

She's got a name, Greg...even if she does like taking pictures of my cock.

GREG

That's...I really never needed to know a fact like that, Kent.

KENT

Yeah, but now you do...and I take 'em of her, too./ Loads of 'em.

GREG

Super./ Hmmm. Didn't even know she had a cock. Learn a little something every day.

KENT

Ha! 'S not really that funny, dude...

GREG

Well...anyhow, don't ask me to do that again, alright? 'Cause I'm... I can't. I just...

KENT

You mean you won't.

GREG

No, I'm saying...yeah, maybe. Won't.

KENT

Right, 'cause of course you can--you can do most anything you want, so it stands to reason that you could if you wanted to. If you had to help your friend, or, like, felt inclined to, then you could without any problems...so you won't do it, that's what you're really saying./ You will not.

GREG

O-kay./ Yes.

KENT

I see...

GREG

I just, you know...I felt like shit when I did that to Carly. Even though we don't always get along--it was crappy, it was, and I don't wanna be that guy to her any more, alright?/ I'm--this isn't being judgemental or saying anything about your lifestyle or whatnot, I'm just saying it needs to quit for me. Being that guy.

KENT

Hey, fine./ I get it.

GREG

Then good.

KENT

Whatever you gotta do./ Or not.

GREG

Right./ Yep.


Script Extract #3


54


KENT

Yep. (BEAT) I mean, you're in it now, but you don't have to do any more if it bugs you so much...

GREG

What does that mean? 'In it?'

KENT

Nothing.

GREG

No, seriously, what?

KENT

Just that, you know...you helped make it happen, the first place./ When I brought it up...yes...

GREG

No, I didn't./ No...

KENT

Yeah, you said, 'go for it' when we were talking in the break room./ I it specifically, and so that's what I did...

GREG

But...no, that was.../ That was before...

KENT

And you went out to dinner with us, lied to my wife about it, practically took the pictures for us--but if you suddenly got a case of the conscience, then fine.

GREG

Look, you do what you want--your life's a different thing than mine and if you can do that, realistically live with yourself after you act that way, then it's ok...

KENT

Hey, man, thanks, I really appreciate you giving me your permission here...

GREG

I'm just saying...it's...

KENT

And I'm saying this: don't be such a lump of shit, okay?/ Not some high-minded guy who sits in judgement on his friends...

GREG

Look.../ I'm not.

KENT

That's exactly what you're doing!

GREG

No, Kent, I'm not, I'm saying that I just can't be a party to lying right now, to a bunch of secrets or that sorta deal where I'm, I'm, I'm put in that position...

KENT

Whatever, man.


Almeida Projects

Almeida Projects Resource Pack

Almeida Projects is the Almeida Theatre’s creative learning programme.

Written and designed by Charlie Payne, with contributions from Natalie Mitchell, Stephanie Bell and Natasha Nixon.

Inspired by the Almeida Theatre’s productions, Almeida Projects delivers a range of high quality, innovative activities to make the theatre accessible to young people, inspire them creatively and encourage an exploration of the power and potential of theatre.

Reasons To Be Pretty

Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute was produced at the Almeida Theatre 10 November 2011 - 14 January 2012. The information in this Resource Pack is correct at the time of going to Press. All rights reserved. © Almeida Theatre, Published November 2011. The Almeida Theatre is a ed Charity No. 282167. The Almeida Theatre Company Limited, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA. Use of this Almeida Projects Resource Pack is authorised in connection with the Almeida Projects work at the Almeida Theatre. Any further use in any form must be approved by the creators. The copyright of all original material remains with the creators. Almeida Projects photography: Ludovic des Cognets, Lucy Cullen.

Almeida Projects provides an active, creative link between our theatre and its audience, more specifically an audience that may not have considered that the theatre might not be for them. Our aim is to act as a catalyst to their energies, to their hunger to participate - celebrating the creativity of young people in the best way we know how: by offering them our experience, our expertise and our unique theatre. Michael Attenborough Artistic Director Almeida Projects’ work draws on all aspects of theatre, working with thousands of people each year, and includes: work in partnership with local schools; the Young Friend of the Almeida scheme; and a subsidised ticket scheme for schools. For more information please visit our website.

almeida.co.uk/education Almeida Projects is ed by:

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Aspen Bank of America Merrill Lynch The Noël Coward Foundation Elm Capital Associates Ltd The Peter Harrison Foundation Islington Council Market Securities Pinsent Masons The Rayne Foundation Mrs Sue Baring Lady Boothby Miss Deborah Brett Perdita Cargill-Thompson & Jonathan Martin Stamos J Fafalios Joachim Fleury Lord Hart of Chilton

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