—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“A powerful drama … LaBute shows a true master’s hand in gliding us amid the shoals and reefs of a mined relationship.”

—Donald Lyons, New York Post

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

“LaBute … continues to probe the fascinating dark side of individualism … [His] great gift is to live in and to chronicle that murky area of not-knowing, which mankind spends much of its waking life denying.”

—John Lahr, The New Yorker

“LaBute is the first dramatist since David Mamet and Sam Shepard—since Edward Albee, actually—to mix sympathy and savagery, pathos and power.”

—Donald Lyons, New York Post

“Shape … is LaBute’s thesis on extreme feminine wiles, as well as a disquisition on how far an artist … can go in the name of art … Like a chiropractor of the soul, LaBute is looking for realignment, listening for a crack.”

—John Istel, Elle

BASH

“The three stories in bash are correspondingly all, in different ways, about the power instinct, about the animalistic urge for control. In rendering these narratives, Mr. LaBute shows not only a merciless ear for contemporary speech but also a poet’s sense of recurring, slyly graduated imagery … darkly engrossing.”

—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

NEIL LABUTE is an award-winning playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter. His plays include: bash, The Shape of Things, The Distance From Here, The Mercy Seat, Fat Pig (Olivier Award nominated for Best Comedy), Some Girl(s), Reasons to be Pretty (Tony Award nominated for Best Play), In a Forest, Dark and Deep, a new adaptation of Miss Julie, and Reasons to be Happy. He is also the author of Seconds of Pleasure, a collection of short fiction, and a 2013 recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Neil LaBute’s film and television work includes In the Company of Men (New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmaker Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Shape of Things, Lakeview Terrace, Death at a Funeral, Some Velvet Morning, Ten x Ten, Dirty Weekend, Full Circle, Billy & Billie, and Van Helsing.

ALSO BY NEIL LABUTE

FICTION

Seconds of Pleasure: Stories

SCREENPLAYS

In the Company of Men

Your Friends and Neighbors

ADAPTATIONS

Miss Julie

Woyzeck

PLAYS

bash: three plays

The Mercy Seat

The Distance From Here

The Shape of Things

Fat Pig

Autobahn

This Is How It Goes

Some Girl(s)

Wrecks and Other Plays

In a Dark Dark House

Reasons to be Pretty

Filthy Talk for Troubled Times and Other Plays

The Break of Noon

Lovely Head and Other Plays

Reasons to be Happy

In a Forest, Dark and Deep

Some Velvet Morning

Things We Said Today: Short Plays and Monologues

The Money Shot

The Way We Get By

Exhibit ‘A’

Copyright

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all plays in this book, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, the British Empire including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, are subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. The stock and amateur performance rights in the English language throughout the United States, and its territories and possessions, Canada, and the Open Market are controlled by the Gersh Agency, 41 Madison Avenue, 33rd Floor, New York, New York, 10010. No professional or nonprofessional performances of the plays herein (excluding first-class professional performance) maybe given without obtaining in advance the written permission of the Gersh Agency and paying the requisite fee. Inquiries concerning all other rights should be addressed to the Gersh Agency.