Reasons to be Pretty

It claims to be a play about “our culture’s fixation with vanity and physical attractiveness”.  The title fits: Reasons to be Pretty.  But I must have missed this.  I witnessed the scope of beauty, yes, but it was in the total ugliness of some characters and relationships.

Square Peg Productions and Director Eddy Segal brings Reasons to be Pretty, from American playwright and screenwriter Neil LaBute, to Theatreworks.  LaBute wrote the play over a ten year period which explains its disjointedness at times.

Greg (Paul Denny) and Steph (Rebecca Denny) are in a stagnant four-year relationship when Greg calls her face ‘regular’ to a colleague and mate Kent (Johnny McNamara), which has been overheard by Kent’s wife Carly (Eleanor Howlett) and relayed to Steph.  Three break ups follow, often in cringe-worthy fashion.

The four characters are not eloquent, nor are they particularly intelligent. Set in a modern context, the boys work the graveyard shift unpacking boxes in a supermarket, safeguarded by security officer Carly.  Dreams are modest: Carly wants a baby, Kent wants a baseball trophy, and Steph wants to be found attractive by her partner.  Greg, played to perfection by Denny, is the seemingly simple protagonist but so frustrated in life he escapes to literature. 

The three relationships – Steph and Greg, Greg and Kent, Kent and Carly – are dysfunctional.  Conversations generally finish five minutes too late, where irreparable damage is done.  Unfortunately there’s nowhere to hide as the audience envelope the stage.  So intimate is the space that the cast perform their own set changes.  Luckily Set Designer Isobel Sutton has made it easy: a table and garbage bin represents the staff tearoom, a spatula and pan signify a kitchen, a bench makes a mall, and so on.  The neutral-coloured floor functions effectively in all its capacities, especially as the baseball ground. 

Music was used sparingly: during transitions, to provide energy and historical context for the audience, and as background in the mall.  Lights weren’t fancy which was a missed opportunity for the tearoom (here fluorescent lights were required), as well as on the baseball diamond. 

It seemed the show was enjoyed by everyone but me. I was disengaged, embarrassed for the characters and by the characters. I didn’t believe the subject matter was strong enough. I did not like any of the characters.  I felt restless, as the inflated script needed to be edited by at least 20 minutes. 

The show however does succeed in proving that the right partner either encourages inner/outer beauty or crushes it.  Thus Reasons to be Pretty may not make you question the value of beauty as it claims to do in its byline, but in its own way it’s a thought-provoking piece of contemporary theatre.

Tammy Shmerling