When the three monologues that make up Neil LaBute’s “Bash” opened in New York in 1999, it was the presence of Calista Flockhart in the cast that drew media attention and sold-out crowds.
Or was all that buzz stirred by the playwright, screenwriter and movie director (“In the Company of Men,” “Your Friends and Neighbors”) whose Hollywood stock is rising with singular rapidity?
These days, LaBute’s work is very hot. Showtime quickly picked up the New York production of “Bash,” broadcasting the piece the next summer. Last year, LaBute’s “Nurse Betty” attracted decent reviews. And his “Possessed,” , due for release this fall, attracted the acting services of the notoriously picky Gwyneth Paltrow.
Yet few people are aware that LaBute paid his early dues in the dank basement of a Chicago coffeehouse, taught playwriting in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and now lives quietly with his family in Barrington — a seemingly incongruous location for a sexually charged writer of the Mormon faith (since he was a student at Brigham Young University) who’s known for unflinching investigations of human nastiness.
In 1993, a 30-year-old LaBute could be seen lurking in the low-rent basement of Cafe Voltaire, hanging out with some old actor friends from the University of Kansas and watching the reactions of small but enthusiastic Lakeview audiences to the work of an unknown scribe.
“Back then I was learning,” LaBute says today, “about the importance of control and the need to communicate directly with an audience.”
Despite some shocked but very favorable reviews in the Chicago alternative press, audiences were initially quite small for “Lepers,” a brilliant, hard-hitting LaBute play about the sexual machinations of a group of promiscuous and self-loathing urbanites. But “Lepers” eventually caught on, provoking quick revivals at both the Strawdog Theatre and the Theatre Building.
Those who did telephone interviews with him at the time may recall having to shout to be heard over the sounds of the television that was playing in LaBute’s Ft. Wayne home. As his kids played in the background, the soft-spoken writer would talk with relish about his fascination with sin and the exposure of human betrayal.
Like everything else with this fellow, it was a bizarre juxtaposition of opposites.
Those early Chicago audiences were ahead of the cultural curve. After LaBute found some Ft. Wayne investors to back his project, “Lepers” became a wildly successful independent feature called “In the Company of Men.” It launched LaBute’s movie career.
“I tell people that [my] roots are in theater but then it’s pretty much `What do you think of Britney Spears,'” said LaBute over the phone from London last week (where “Possessed” is being filmed) as he described the numerous press interviews he did in support of “Nurse Betty.”
“People aren’t much interested in the early Chicago days,” he continued, “I guess they are looking for things with which their readers can relate.”
Chicago’s About Face Theatre is hoping its audiences can relate to “Bash.” For the first time in years, LaBute’s work can be seen again in Chicago when the North Side company gives that piece its Midwestern premiere. Preview performances were scheduled to have begun Thursday night.
A trio of monologues, “Bash” continues LaBute’s obsession with the capacity of apparently nice folks to do terrible things to each other.
“I’m still fascinated by the duality of people,” LaBute says. “Just because someone is a beautiful person, that does not mean that they are a good person. And yet we all get so invested in that.”
By describing abuse perpetrated by a teacher — or depicting gay bashing from the point of view of the basher — LaBute forces his audience to confront the corruptions of the seemingly genial. We are intended, in part, to recognize in his works our friends, our neighbors and, perhaps, ourselves.
“I think it’s death in the theater when there’s a curtain that comes down that allows the audience to remove themselves,” LaBute says. “I prefer to make the audience squirm.”
LaBute is more personally involved with the planned About Face squirming than you might expect. There have been some script changes made especially for the Chicago production, and the author has held numerous trans-Atlantic conversations with thecompany’s director, Eric Rosen.
“It’s bold for a gay theater to look at bashing from the other side,” Rosen says, noting that “Bash” is somewhat removed from the typical fare at About Face. “Neil forces us to adopt the point of view of the people we hate.”
Interestingly enough, an early version of “A Gaggle of Saints,” one of the three “Bash” monologues, was performed years ago at Voltaire. And LaBute says that he even did his best to get the whole show done in Chicago before its big New York splash.
“I was trying to get Steppenwolf to do it first,” LaBute said. “But I guess they just could not connect with it or something like that.”
Given his Midwestern birth (in Detroit), his Barrington residency and his ongoing enthusiasm for Chicago theater, it’s surprising that LaBute is not normally thought of as a local artist. Chicago, after all, helped make things happen for him a few years ago.
Despite the financial rewards of screenwriting, LaBute says he intends to write far more for the theater. One suspects that if the Goodman Theatre or Steppenwolf Theatre Company were looking for a potent new work, they would only have to ask the local author.
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The producers are mum, so predicting when Chicago will see “The Lion King” is a guessing game. We know for sure, though, that a national tour of the mega-musical will begin in spring 2002 in Denver.
Because the Disney moguls know full well that Chicagoans will not take kindly to following a gaggle of smaller cities on the slate of planned bookings for the biggest touring show in years, smart money would back the notion that the Toronto production will move to the Cadillac Palace for a sit-down engagement, probably also in 2002. But don’t call the box office yet. They won’t know what you are talking about.
