Preview: The Shape of Things

November 17-19, 7:30 p.m.,

November 19-20, 2:00 p.m.

Adams Pool Theatre

Directed by Allen J. MacLeod ’14

Produced by Sara Kantor ’14

How do aesthetics relate to identity? “The Shape of Things”, written by Neil LaBute, aims to decipher this obscure and long-prodded question. This Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club production, directed by Allen J. MacLeod ’14, takes a sparse, character-focused look at such unsettled thematic questions through the lens of a rapidly disintegrating relationship.

Adam (Tony J. Sterle ’11) is a socially awkward, literature-loving student who has never been in a serious relationship. He catches Evelyn (Jacqueline J. Rossi ’12), a Master of Fine Arts graduate student, defacing a piece of artwork at the museum where he works, and due to that chance meeting the two start dating. When Adam starts changing on Evelyn’s request—first his hair, then his weight, then his nose—her motives, and their relationship, come into question.

By staging the play all in white, MacLeod locates the play’s dramatic center in its characters. “There are certain shows that are a spectacle. This is not one of them. This show is about the characters, their interactions, and their story,” says MacLeod. “I want the audience to shape their own vision of what’s happening on stage.”

The play toys with ideas about art and its motives as well as the subjectivity of relationships by breaking down the distinction between the two in a way that is disturbing yet ultimately satisfying. “This play is going to shock you because it’s something that could happen to anyone. You think something is so real and so right, but it isn’t,” says Leonie A. Oostrom ’15, who plays Jenny, Adam’s college friend. The play “makes you think twice about what is means to be in a relationship and look at yourself in the mirror,” says Rossi.

Although the play deals with intellectually heavy topics like the meaning of art and power dynamics, in the underbelly of it all is a “love story that is funny,” says Rossi. Like all LaBute’s best plays, “The Shape of Things” is fraught with black humor, capable of making the worst of situations relatable and humorous. “The show is very relevant to the people here,” says MacLeod. “It has a lot to do with self-image and what people are willing to do to fit in.”