An overview

Plot line

The plot line of The Shape of Things is deliberately disturbing and attention grabbing. It focuses on the cruel games of a more powerful partner who plays with a smitten weaker one (Rudd and Weitsz, 2002).

The play is set in a mid-western town in the USA. An English Literature Major College student named Adam, who is rather shy and insecure, meets an attractive and predatory Art Graduate student called Evelyn; she is trying to deface a prominent human sculpture at the local museum where he works. Adam's life takes an unexpected tum because of this encounter as he is introduced to a world of sex and intimacy that he has only dreamt about (Loveridge, 2001) but this has unthinkable consequences.

A relationship develops between the two and at Evelyn's suggestion Adam begins to change his appearance and behaviour patterns becoming a more confident individual. He is moulded into a new person by Evelyn's influence but does not realise she is preying on him emotionally and sexually in the name of art. During the course of their relationship Adam introduces Evelyn to his friends Jenny and Phillip and this friendship is reshaped and then destroyed through arguments over the distinctions between art and politics as well as Adam's illicit affair with Jenny.

In the penultimate scene Adam learns that he has been part of Evelyn's Art Thesis project to change the world. In the denouement he is publically humiliated through her address to the audience showing him as her art installation creation. In the final scene Adam confronts Evelyn demanding an explanation but she can only offer her caustic view of aesthetics and art. Adam is left standing alone among the remnants of his life watching and listening to Evelyn's view of the world over and over again (Adapted from The Shape of Things -Wikipedia, 2009).

Overview of the themes

The central themes are:

• being reshaped and manipulated in life by a person you love
• being willing (6 reshape a life because of love
• duplicity
• gender struggles
• personal identity and sexual intimacy
• the nature and meaning of art, learning and aesthetics
• the nature of romance
• the moral values and attitudes we can live by
• the meaning of truth in relationships
• the meaning of truth in art.

Questions the themes raise are -

• How far would you go for love and art? (LaBute, 2001)
• Would a person be willing to change themselves and what price might they pay? (2001)
• Does everyone have a little bit of Evelyn and Adam in them?
• Are the themes vitriolic without being thought provoking?
• Does the play offer more than moral outrage?
• Is a sense of justice palpable in the themes?
• Do the themes ask the big questions about relationships today?
• How would an audience respond to the themes after seeing the show?

Overview of the Black Comedy characteristics

The play:

• polarizes the views of audiences and the critics
• may not change an audience's opinions, but it may raise new questions
• is clever and uncomfortable
• delves into the unseemly and dark side of life
• teeters on the edge of moral, social, political and cultural norms
• gives voice to the thinkable and unthinkable. For example:

• uses humour to confront an audience with human experiences of pain, loss, the controversial and the taboo. Neil LaBute says:

Overview of the dramatic forms and performance styles

• The play is performed in the style of realism. This style helps to make the issues shocking to an audience.
• Neil LaBute subscribes to Artaud's theory of theatre which is in order to make any kind of theatre one has to re-make it, i.e. conventional theatre approaches must be torn down.

Overview of the techniques and conventions

• Individual scenes offer snapshots of the events rather than an evolution of events, which means the audience has to totally engage with the narrative as well as using their own imaginations.
• Each scene has a malignant twist.
• Neil LaBute's directional choice has been to darken the stage at the end of each Scene change and blast the audience with loud music, from The Smashing Pumpkins or Fraternity's recordings (Loveridge, 2001).
• The dialogue is quick witted, finely tuned and expressed in a quick fired manner. It develops from single thoughts and speech patterns to more complex thought and speech patterns finishing with a lengthy monologue that spews forth the final denouement.
• There is no interval in the play; it flows as one long constructed sequence of change and reshaping. Adam changes his physical appearance, status, his allegiances, his circumstances, his mood, his heart, his views, his affections (Greig, 2005, p.87).
• The audience members are used as a College body of spectators/students/examiners in the penultimate auditorium scene.
• The names Evelyn and Adam refer to the biblical story of Adam and Eve and how humans were created and shaped. Dorian Grey refers to the story of a physically beautiful young man who desires to sell his soul to ensure that a portrait painted of him would age rather than himself. Dirty Dancing refers to the story of a teenage girl who crosses over to womanhood both physically and emotionally.
• The play has been described as LaBute's Pygmalion and Adam mentions 'enry 'iggins in The Restaurant/Lobby scene.

Overview of the characters in the play

• Evelyn is attractive, arty, sophisticated, charismatic, cruel and caustic. She preys emotionally and sexually on Adam. She is aged in her early twenties.
• Adam is shy, intellectual, indecisive, decisive, amiable and a nerd; a man wanting to change and develop his life. He is aged in his early twenties.
• Phillip is supercilious, aggressive, amiable and quick witted. He is a good friend to Adam. He is aged in his early twenties.
• Jenny is a conventional small town girl who is happy, vulnerable and confused; she is out of her depth when she meets Evelyn. She is aged in her early twenties.