LaBute Neil LaBute: Plays 1

Filthy Talk for Troubled Times; The Mercy Seat; Some Girl(s); This Is How It Goes; Helter Skelter; A Second of Pleasure
Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-30786-9
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 496 Seiten

Filthy Talk for Troubled Time is one of LaBute's earliest plays. A downbeat night at a topless bar exposes the gulf between the twitchy clientele and the waitresses who serve but despise them. The Mercy Seat examines a couple who, on the day after a world-changing atrocity, toy with exploiting it to start a new life. Some Girl(s) follows a young writer's panicked retreat from his imminent wedding as he seeks out old girlfriends and opens new wounds, while in This Is How It Goes the breakdown of a seemingly successful marriage is complicated by submerged bigotry. The collection also includes two short plays about relationships in crisis - A Second of Pleasure and Helter Skelter - which are in equal part tender and chilling. Together these plays form a complex and compelling portrait of the sexes - sometimes warring, sometimes loving, but never fully at peace.

Neil LaBute received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre, London. He also attended the Sundance Institute's Playwrights Lab and is the Playwright-in- Residence with MCC Theatre in New York City. LaBute's plays include: bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat, The Distance From Here, Autobahn, Fat Pig (Olivier Award nominated for Best Comedy), Some Girl(s), This Is How It Goes, Wrecks, Filthy Talk for Troubled Times, In a Dark Dark House, Reasons to Be Pretty (Tony Award nominated for Best Play) and The Break of Noon. In the spring of 2011 his play In a Forest, Dark and Deep premiered in London's West End. LaBute is also the author of Seconds of Pleasure, a collection of short fiction which was published by Grove Atlantic. His films include 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, a film adaptation of his play of the same title, The Wicker Man, Lakeview Terrace and Death at a Funeral.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Labute, Neil

Leseproben

Waitress One () … No, I don’t think so.

Man Two Fuck ’em.

Man One Right … Fuck ’em.

Waitress Two Fuck ’em.

Man Four Fuck ’em.

Man Three Fuck ’em, yeah … you bet.

Man Five Fuck ’em. Definitely … fuck ’em all.

Man One … Alright! So you found her attractive … big fucking deal, right?

Man Two Sure. But I’m not gonna let my guard down, correct?

Man One No chance in hell. Fuck, you let slip you admire the bitch, you’re picking out nursery wallpaper next week …

Man Two Hey, nothing wrong with being conservative.

Waitress Two () … Tell me this isn’t true. If we could get one really good penis – I mean, take turns keeping it in our freezers, bring it out at parties, that kind of thing – fuck, we could do away with men entirely!

Man Five () … Shit, it’s not like I’m dying to meet somebody. I mean, with all this new data they’re throwing at us, science says I’m sleeping with like, everybody she’s screwed in the last five, maybe ten, years. So if she’s at all promiscuous … Fuck, that makes me a fag. () I mean, at least in theory …

Man Three () … But if she invites me in, okay.

Man Four That’s it, huh?

Man Three Fuck yes … I mean, I don’t expect anything for buying dinner, springing for a movie, shit like that …

Man Four Yeah, that’s low class …

Man Three But some chick, she lets me in the front door? Then hey, I figure it it’s open season …

Man Four Seems reasonable.

Man Three Otherwise, she’s a tease, right? Now, I can see making clear on the porch she’s a prude bitch, doesn’t

go in for all the humping and what have you – in fact, I kinda admire that – then it’s a handshake and ‘I will see you soon’. Fine. () I never call the gash again so long as I live, but fine …

Man Four That I can handle …

Man Three Right. But if it’s in over on the couch … ‘Is there a late movie on? I’ve got a nice Chablis …’ Bunch of shit like that … () Fuck it, the bitch is mine.

Man Four Seems reasonable.

Man Three Yep. The way I see it … she opens one door, she opens ’em all.

Waitress One () … I mean, what is going on out there? Huh? Honestly. It’s safer in here – with my tits out and all of these guys around – then it is out on the street these days. And I’m being completely serious …

Man One Would you look at that –

Man Four – bitch over there?

Man Three I wonder if she’s –

Man Five – wearing anything under that skirt?

Man Two … Ahh, who cares? Fuck ’em.

().

Man Three … Fine then, I’m not gonna lie to you … it scares me shitless. Hey, I don’t look forward to sprouting lesions down at the free clinic because some loose-bummed eunuch screwed the friend of a friend somewhere down the line … that’s not fair. I never did anything to him … not unless I was pretty drunk!

I’m kidding … but AIDS is some spooky shit, don’t you think?

Still … I’ll do whatever I can to help. Answer phones, collect money at shopping malls, knock on doors, whatever. Put me down for it. And why? Because it’s an ‘issue’, and issues are important, so, whatever they need …

I just wish people’d do me one favour: don’t try and tell me that Rock Hudson was queer, okay? I mean, I’ll sit and look at their charts and filmstrips for weeks … that’s fine. Just don’t say that about Rock. You ever see him in … with Doris Day? You know he was fucking her offscreen … Come on! Had to be … How about There’s a great movie … and you wanna sell me the notion that Hudson’d rather be popping little Jimmie Dean than Liz Taylor? I say go fuck yourself …

Hey … you must’ve at least watched an episode of right? Well, you see it … it’s still on cable … and I’m saying there’s no way that McMillan ever got down on his knees for some other guy – if you knew anything about that character you’d know that Hudson just did not have that in him!

I’ll be glad to do what I can to help … but seriously, lay off Rock. That’s where I draw the fucking line.

Man Two … Where the fuck is she?

Man One Who?

Man Two I don’t know … haven’t met her yet.

Man Four … Look, I’m not saying it’s for everybody … right? Overall, pushing shoes for a living is a gigantic pile of shit … no question. I am, however, suggesting an alternative reality here … offer up a few of its advantages.

Yes, sure, there’s the low pay, hustling for commissions … fine, agreed, that’s bullshit. And yeah, some old cunt staggers in with her fucking gams shoved down in boots she’s been traipsing around the mall in all day … frankly, the stench makes my balls crawl up in my throat … no man deserves that. And there are those days when you’re sitting on that stool tying a pair of Buster Browns on some screaming preschool bitch or helping one of those poor crippled fucks find a reasonable-looking gimp shoe – you know, with the big heel and the soft insole – that kind of thing. Times like that, you figure … fuck, life as I know it is over.

But then … suddenly … it happens. A fucking miracle transpires.

I’ll be helping one of the usuals, like I said, and I will happen to glance over, very casual, into the mirror next to me … occasionally I’ll score a little pantie action or a touch of thigh … and … shit, there it is. My reason for living this otherwise very fucked existence.

Some broad, maybe thirty, thirty-five – still firm is the point I am making here – she’s sitting back in one of our captain’s chairs with a leg up on the shoe bench. I mean, she has the right, doesn’t she? It’s a big fucking mall, kids are really chapping her ass with their whining … so she’s sitting there, waiting for one of our lazy high-school pricks to get her some sandals or something … and, I mean, she’s really relaxing so, if I lean down just enough and the light is with me – yes, certain factors are key – but if things are working in my favour …...