he shape of things is what we make of it. Whether we love ourselves as concepts or as people, we always find some flaw that we would change in ourselves and, more to the point, what we would change in our prospective mates. It can be little things, like the way they where their hair or the way they wear the same stupid frumpy jacket all the time. Sometimes we see our subjective perfections as anything but. We can ignore it for as long as we can, but we always have the little nagging voice whispering in our ear. “Not strong enough. Not smart enough. Not pretty enough.”

It’s these nagging little flaws that make up the majority of the theme of “The Shape of Things.” Written by BYU graduate and internationally known playwright Neil Labute and directed by University of Utah undergrad Joel Richards, the play premieres today in the Lab Theatre. The Lab’s production of the critically acclaimed play sparks with such diverse questions as “If I could change one thing about my lover what would it be?” “Where do I draw the line in changing myself for other people?” and possibly the question with the most startling answers, “What is art, what is cruelty, what is life and where do you draw the line between them?” The Shape of Things, which was very recently turned into a movie directed by LaBute, begins with the meeting of Adam (Ryan Shaver) and Evelyn (Cassie StokesWyle). The two college students, who seemingly come from two different worlds despite living in the same small town, meet when Evelyn tries to spraypaint a sculpture in a museum and Adam, a nerdish, fingernail-chomping security guard, makes a futile attempt to stop her. What starts off as seemingly the most banal of romantic comedies turns into something more tragic, bitter, and brilliant. Like a deranged Pygmallion told in reverse, “The Shape of Things” is a true thing.

Joel Richards’s direction is as quirky as Labute’s characters. Actors will do blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em actions that tell a lot about who the characters are without drawing attention. I thought I was the only one who noticed Adam biting his nails, until I realized it was supposed to be a part of his character. I’m a big fan of the understated, and any time you have a character realize that his fly is undone a few lines of dialogue into a conversation and fix himself without making it obvious to the people who just aren’t paying attention, it really says something.

The set designs of the production is also worth mentioning. The Lysol in the doctor’s office was my personal favorite. As the crew sets up your typical waiting room, a stagehand sprays some sort of Pine-Sol all over the place. I don’t know if this was actually called for in the script or part of a plan by Richards and the Lab, but it was clever nonetheless. I can still feel that junk on the back of my tongue, and the way it put the audience in the scene was effective. I just hope that disaster never strikes during a performance when someone is allergic to that nasty stuff.

Three of the four main characters in the play—the other two being Adam’s old friends, J.C. Ernst as Phillip and Stacey Allen as Jenny—are apt to get hurt and show scars throughout the production. Each one is shaped and changed by the shape of things. The only one who seems to come out at the end unscathed is Evelyn. Until the last 10 minutes of the story, she is the bad guy and Adam is her defenseless victim. I have never had an opinion of a character change so drastically by her final speech at the end. Evelyn explains herself in a detached manner, as if she really is talking about just an object and not Adam, a human being. However, after her pleas to a faceless audience within the play, we see Adam as something more and also less, and wonder if there was anything there to begin with. Suddenly, what she has done is not so much evil as intriguing, and her action did not take so much cruelty as it took courage. To change the shape of things in human thought and societal standards makes her the most admirable character in the play, instead of the most loathed.

The biggest faults this production had were the technical difficulties, which will hopefully be fixed for opening night. House music blares in the middle of a scene at one point and, most telling of all, a tremendous revelation is shown to Adam a good 15 minutes before it was supposed to. These things happen, certainly, but it is impossible to deny that they have an impact, even if they are just accidents.

“The Shape of Things” runs through Sunday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. With a Friday matinee at 4:30 p.m. Neil LaBute will attend the Thursday performance and answer questions afterwards. Tickets are $7, $5 if you’re a student. For tickets or information, call or visit the Kingsbury Hall (581-7100) or Union box office or go to www.arttix.org.
jordan@red-mag.com