Neil LaBute’s two hour four-hander dark comedy is just as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. LaBute’s play was written for the stage but then adapted for film starring Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd.
Nicky Allpress’s slick production at Park Theatre does not disappoint. The minimal staging works well as it transforms from museum, to bedroom to apartment.
Adam (Luke Newton), a 22 year old geeky English Literature undergrad works part time security in an Art gallery in a small university town. He encounters Evelyn (Amber Anderson), a feisty 25 year old Art major. He asks her to step back from a sculpture. She refuses. She admits to him that she is planning on defacing the sculpture by spray painting a penis on it. Cut to her spray painting her number on the lining of his blazer and the beginning of a very toxic relationship.
Evelyn will go on to re-shape the naive Adam into the ideal boyfriend through gentle manipulation, gas-lighting, rhinoplasty and alienating him from his friends. A meeting with Adam’s friends Philip (Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy) and Jenny (Carla Harrison-Hodge) sparks a row early on where Eveyln and Philip get into a heated argument over the vandalism of the art at the museum. Evelyn also discovers that night that Philip had a crush on Jenny but was too shy to ask her out. Evelyn pretty much gives him a me or them ultimatum to which he chooses her.
Sociopathic Eveyln will go to reshape her boyfriend through subtle gaslighting and manipulation. He loses weight his glasses and his geeky blazer is replaced by more trendy clothes. She also encourages him to get a nose job. What is left of the original Adam? This play is a lesson into not ignoring the warning signs when you wind up dating the wrong person.
The Shape of Things runs at the Park Theatre in London from Wed 24 May – Sat 1 July. Visit their website to book tickets.
