Filthy Talk for Troubled Times: And Other Plays

Description

Neil LaBute burst onto the American theater scene in 1989 with his controversial debut work Filthy Talk for Troubled Times. Set in a barroom in Anytown USA and populated by a series of everymen (and two beleaguered everywomen), this series of frank exchanges explores the innumerable varieties of American intolerance. A unique snapshot of the times, the play seldom allowed production by the author since provides a compelling look at the early thinking and evolution of one of our great theater artists. Also in this collection is a series of new, short works, some never before produced. They include "The New Testament," a showbiz satire that takes a close look at the perils of color-blind casting, and "The Furies," in which a woman helps navigate her brother's breakup with his out-and-then-perhaps, in-the-closet-again lover.

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. 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.

Praise for Neil LaBute "The reigning prince of Off Broadway." --David Amsden, New York "LaBute [is] the dark shining star of stage and film morality." --Linda Winer, Newsday "There is something of the sinister menace of Pinter in LaBute's work (along with David Mamet, he is very much the heir apparent to that master)." --Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times "A connoisseur of unsettling emotion . . . LaBute's psychological terrain is the punishing slippery slope of ambivalence. In his hands, this bedeviling state of spiritual stasis comes with a distinctive sound, a sensational hemming and hawing, which poetically betrays the mind boxing clever with itself." --John Lahr, The New Yorker "Like a giant, mischievous child poking a dog with a stick, Neil LaBute delights in seeing what he can get away with. [He's] the bad boy of American theater . . . Dangerous and devastatingly funny." --Jumana Farouky, Time "LaBute['s] judgment of his fellow men makes the Old Testament Jehovah look like a softie . . . his talents go beyond glibly vicious storytelling and extend into thoughtful analyses of a world rotten with original sin." --Ben Brantley, The New York Times "There is no playwright on the planet these days who is writing better than Neil LaBute." --John Lahr, The New Yorker