Neil LaBute Unplugged

A 20 year old Neil LaBute! play, Filthy Talk for Troubled Times was revived in a staged reading to benefit MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theater on Thursday night. You know you are in this playwright's libidinous world when the word penis is used in the first few lines.--and by Julia Stiles no less, as a waitress, one of two. The other is Alice Eve. They serve two tables of two men: Craig Bierko, Johnny Galecki, Josh Hamilton, and Justin Long. The unnamed men and women do not actually talk to one another as they mouth fantasies and fondle verbal genitalia. Language is what they dish up-in indiscrete riffs: you learn the versatility of “cunt,” the phallic nature of urban architecture,  the pleasures and pain of a man sandwich, the damage done to a boy coming in on his father whose member is inserted in the woman next door, the resilience and fragility of twisted balls, of egos of each gender. Frank Sinatra's “I've Got You Under My Skin” is more than background sound.

This play was written before LaBute added narrative to his repertoire: Fat Pig and last season's reasons to be pretty, both MCC productions, attracted such fine actors as Jeremy Piven, Keri Russell, Andrew McCarthy, Marin Ireland, Thomas Sadowski, to name a few. As Bernard Telsey, MCC artistic and casting director, said at the after party at Ramscale, actors are always drawn to the edgy, sexy characters in Neil LaBute plays. And this ensemble got their filthy talk down in 48 hours!

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

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