Pauline Adamek
Hello dear readers!
This week’s theater review for the LA Weekly is of an evening of Neil LaBute’s short plays, entitled Short Ends, currently playing at Open Fist Theatre in Hollywood.
To get to the LA Weekly’s theater page with my review, click here and then scroll right down to find it.
~ OR ~
You can just read it here!!
Happy reading!
Short Ends.
Neil LaBute is renowned for his often brutally vulgar dialogue and scathing portrayals of misogynistic and devious men. In his plays and screenplays he strips away the polite veneer of social interactions, daring to expose the ugly truth lurking behind human relationships and gender divisions.
A collection of five of his short works now playing at Open Fist are definitely from the less confrontational end of his spectrum. Nevertheless, LaBute toys with our expectations, exploring the edges of discomfort and frequently ripping the rug from beneath the audience with an unexpected plot twist. Not bad for ten minute short playlets. (A couple of these were originally short films.)
In “Sexting” a garrulous young woman, with a disproportionate sense of entitlement, harangues a woman who struggles to be heard.
In “The Wager” a bully antagonizes a homeless man to the dismay of his female companion.
A distraught woman confides in her duplicitous “BFF.” Two other plays remain.
All five shorts are linked by their edgy, ironic humor.
Short Ends
6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.
Continues through Sat, Aug 4,
Thurs thru Sat, 8 pm; Sun 2pm.
$20.00
323-882-6912
Terry Morgan
