LaBute probes ‘ Virtues,’ ‘ Vices’ in double bill
Here are a few things you should know about Neil LaBute’s paired programs of 11 oneacts, which are organized under the separate titles “Virtues” and “Vices,” and are receiving highly polished, intensely acted performances at Profiles Theatre:
1. The great majority of these one- and two- character plays will crawl right under your skin, leaving you chastened, questioning and nodding. But also, at times, you might be ready to shout: “OK, this time you’ve just pushed things too far.”
2. If you’re looking for any clear differentiation between LaBute’s assessment of the nature of virtue and vice, you had best look elsewhere. Those characters who appear to behave virtuously invariably do so in order to get something for themselves, or at best to relieve an itch. As for those who are well aware of their vices, they know just how to use the veneer of virtue to do the same. ( Welcome to the world according to LaBute, who in one form or another has been exploring this rocky-moral turf throughout his career.)
3. This double bill, which will run in rotating rep, is a formidable undertaking for Profiles ( where LaBute is a resident artist) and involves the work of 11 directors and 20 actors.
The “Virtues” first:
In “Good Luck ( in Farsi),” two ferociously competitive and insecure actresses ( Sarah Brooks and Saran Ruggles) are waiting to be called for an audition for a major television role and use the time to ply their advantages and disadvantages to maximum subversive effect. It is followed by the somewhat forced “Romance,” which homes in on a reckoning of infidelity between two gay menwho were once lovers ( Patrick Gannon and Nik Kourtis), and by “Kandahar,” which finds a soldier who served in Afghanistan ( the cool, crew- cutted Drew Halliday) testifying ( in a monologue) at a hearing where his post- traumatic stress meltdown is recounted in subtly gradated steps.
Betsy Bowman and Tom McGregor demonstrate both their hugely impressive aerobic fortitude and expert acting skills in “10- K,” which finds two joggers— both married, and both teasingly ready for some outside activity— flirting as they run almost nonstop.
In “Swallowing Bicycles,” LaBute shrewdly taps into the politics of the theater world he knows sowell as a playwright much like himself ( Rob Grabowski) goes headtohead with a nonprofit theater company’s director ( Laura Berner Taylor). She has asked him to tone down a script he was invited to write for a gala fundraiser— a script that contains a sort of Charlie Hebdo- like provocation— and the playwright balks at what he considers censorship in this very smart and timely “argument play.”
The “Virtues” program closes with “Mulberry Bush” ( featuring Tim Curtis and Adam Soule), a somewhat contrived yet still searing piece about a sex offender. Now for the “Vices”: In “Happy Hour,” Brennan Roche plays a salesman with a fiancee. He is entertaining a group of Japanese businessmen in a noisy bar, but as the music blares ( and the alcohol flows), he starts bantering with a “good time girl” ( the sensational Eleni Pappageorge), and they get “thisclose” to having a onenight stand.
Stretching belief way too far ( but grabbing hold of a trendy subject I won’t reveal here), “I’m Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn’t Break Your Heart” ( with Brookelyn Hebert and Marie Weigle) looks at the breakup of a lesbian relationship that is quite a bit more than it initially appears. It is followed by the monologue “Totally,” which also pushes the believability buttons, but actress Tamara Chambers is so commanding, and so funny- desperate in her tale of revenge against a boyfriend’s infidelity, that it almost doesn’t matter.
As for “The Great War,” the tale of a married couple ( Elizabeth Birnkrant and Brian Goodman) who are about to divorce, it pushes the vitriol button to the Medea breaking point. ( Yes, there are kids involved.) I’m sure there is a fair amount of truth in all this, but the play is just too heavy- handed.
Finally, there is “Lovely Head,” the story of a young prostitute ( the striking Marilyn Bass) and her frequent “client,” a rather repressed middle- aged man ( a powerhouse turn by Steve Silver). Without giving too much away, be warned: There is more here than meets the eye, and it’s winningly creepy and ambiguous.