Exploitation, infidelity, passion:
all in a PURE day's work
This Is How It Goes

PURE returns to one of its favorite playwrights with production of another Neil LaBute show, this one focusing on an interracial love triangle set in small-town America. LaBute's intelligent, caustic, and thought-provoking plays blend seamlessly with PURE's stated mission to explore the human condition through the medium of acting, and the theatre again draws from Charleston's pool of talented local actors, including PURE regular David Mandel, Ann Elizabeth Lyon, and Johnny Heyward, and homegrown behind-the-scenes professionals like director Dana Friedman and stage manager Julia Levy. Audiences can expect to be stimulated, titillated, and entertained by This Is How It Goes, and they should probably buy tickets early: PURE's last three shows have enjoyed mostly sold-out runs packed with return audience members excited to see what unique new direction the theatre's taken this time.


'This Is How It Goes' at PURE Theatre
BY Dottie Ashley
Post and Courier

Oscar Wilde once said that the life-blood of theater is the element of surprise.

This is an adage that Pure Theatre adheres to, as over the past two years, the organization has broken ground with such cutting-edge productions as "The Mercy Seat" and "Spinning Into Butter."

Founded by co-directors Sharon Graci and Rodney Lee Rogers, Pure Theatre is known for staging plays with shocking situations that precipitate disagreements among patrons on how a show's subject can be interpreted.

This edgy trend holds true with the theater's upcoming production of Neil LaBute's "This Is How It Goes," opening Friday.

"This Is How It Goes" tells the story of an interracial friendship/love triangle that involves a young white woman; her white male friend from high school and her current husband, who is black.

Directed by Dana Friedman, the drama's story follows the reunion of an unnamed narrator "Man," (David Mandel), who once had a high school crush on "Woman," (Ann Elizabeth "Biz" Lyon). The third member of the triangle is Woman's husband, Cody (Johnny Heyward).

Graci says of the drama, "Pure Theatre has always been attracted to the writing of Neil LaBute because he says what others are often afraid to say. We began our company during the run of La-Bute's 'Bash: Latter Day Plays.' "

In "Bash," LaBute tackles the unspeakable stories of parents who kill their own children.

Graci adds, "LaBute is a prolific and challenging playwright who causes actors to stretch their abilities to meet his standards. I think it would be very rare to leave a LaBute play and not have a discussion about it afterward."

Director Friedman says of the current production, "This play is a challenging and hysterically funny exploration of human nature. In fact, it is unusual that we are able to do this play (which is often not politically correct) in a place like Charleston, which has been voted Most Polite City for more than 10 years running."

Friedman, who graduated from Ashley Hall School and lived in Chicago for a time, adds, "In this play, LaBute is at the top of his game, exploring serious moral and ethical issues from a variety of unexpected angles.

"Like the best of artists, he makes audience members reassess their own attitudes about society.

"One of the play's lines is, 'Words only have power if you let them,' and I think this resonates throughout this work, as it makes you question the truth and then go on to ask if it (the truth) really even matters."

Variety magazine has said of the play, "Whatever reaction it elicits, the work remains unpredictable, manifesting the elusiveness of truth and showing an equal-opportunity misanthropy that lets neither white nor black attitudes off the hook."

Friedman, who worked with a number of theater companies when living in Chicago, adds, "I am thrilled to work with Pure Theatre, a company similar to many of the highly regarded theater companies in Chicago. It is very exciting to come back home to Charleston and see a city that is growing alongside the national theater culture."

"This Is How It Goes" was first produced in New York by The Public Theatre in April 2005. Featuring Amanda Peet, Jeffrey Wright and Ben Stiller, it was directed by George C. Wolfe and went on to be produced in London and Australia.

Graci says this will be the play's Southeast Regional premiere . . .

With this production, Pure Theatre will begin Thursday evening "talk-back" sessions following the play, when the audience can ask the actors questions.

Performances of "This Is How It Goes" are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, continuing Jan. 19-21; 26-28; and Feb. 2-4

Three's Company
A new PURE drama from Neil LaBute is anything but black and white
by Jennifer Corley
Charleston City Paper

The narrator of Neil LaBute's play This is How It Goes at PURE Theatre begins by telling the audience that there's a girl; "But then, there always is." Clearly, there's trouble ahead. He is never given a name (only "Man" in the text); he is the representative. Of men, of humans, of dark sides, of desires.

Man returns to his hometown after ventures in the Army Reserves, law, and marriage. He encounters his high-school crush, Belinda, who's married but flirts back anyway. As always, LaBute skillfully plants the seeds for trouble in steps. Belinda calls her marriage "regular," then eventually the pair agree to meet at Shoe Carnival — to shop for shoes for her son, of course.

Belinda's marriage may or may not be regular. She's white, and her husband Cody, a successful developer, is one of the few black people in their small town. He and Belinda began dating in high school, when he had some laughs at Man's expense.

The play proceeds to delve into seduction, game-playing, and power struggles. And although it's often called "a play about racism," it isn't fully. The racist language in some scenes definitely stands out, but the issue is just a part (enormously integral nonetheless) of a web of dark human flaws.

Director Dana Friedman's clever staging emphasizes the themes of scrutiny and judgment. The set design (by Friedman, Rodney Lee Rogers, and Julia Levy) has the audience symbolically divided, facing each other across the performance area.

LaBute is a terrific writer of sharp dialogue (he's a master of making you laugh and later feel guilty about it) and profound themes. The genius of this play lies in its challenge to the audience on so many levels. There is the usual LaButian challenge to look through one's surface beliefs to the darkest recesses of the id. Then he adds the challenge of following narration from Man — a self-admittedly unreliable narrator. The audience is left to watch events unfold through his eyes instead of our own.

Here's where LaBute's genius turns on him, however. His tricky narrator keeps the audience from ever trusting anything. And while that's challenging, when you have nothing to trust, you can't believe you're truly being shown anything of substance. Also, LaBute has gotten so caught up in his penchant for Shyamalan-esque twists that they've become almost tiresome to those familiar with his work. The big revelation here — even though he parodies himself by acknowledging it — disappoints, not only because it's less interesting than the "real" situation but also because we don't know if it even really happened.

PURE saves LaBute's flailing plot with a strong ensemble. David Mandel as Man seems just right for the role. He builds a strong rapport with the audience, and his charm leads them right where it's supposed to — a place of surprising discomfort. Ann Elizabeth "Biz" Lyon lends a delicate and sympathetic quality to the girl who, from the beginning, was just out to get attention. Johnny Ali Heyward brings out Cody's complexity with a smoldering condescension, anger, and intimidation. Yet Belinda's and Cody's actions, as we see them, come to us through the eyes of our untrustworthy narrator, which in a way deprives them of any real qualities.

LaBute hits on some beautiful and frightening points — he always does — through brutal dialogue and eerily realistic characters, so it's too bad the chance to solidly explore the themes gets buried in writing gimmicks. Still, PURE's production makes the most of LaBute's dramaturgical mélange. In spite of the script's flaws, This Is How It Goes contains some profound moments that PURE delivers impressively on.