3 up, 3 down, end of an inning

Okay, yeah! I finished ushering the Beauty Plays yesterday. Because I’m goal oriented and a bit of completist. There’s nothing quite like that little “ah” when you put the last little collectible in its rightful place (lucky for me I find those Precious Moments doodads creepy – I’d be collecting those bloody things forever). And actually, in this case, I’m glad I stuck it out. In the context of the cycle, it was pretty cathartic.

In the classic sense, it’s the only one of the three plays that can’t be defined as a tragedy. In the other two, the main character’s fatal flaw leads to their downfall, to one extent or another. In reasons to be pretty (lack of title case is LaBute’s – I’ve yet to decide it it’s too twee), our main character’s flaw is that he floats through life without examining anything too closely – his job, his friends, his relationship, his words – and lives in a purgatory of angst because of it. One of the words he doesn’t examine before it flies out of his mouth is that his girlfriend is just “regular” looking. You could feel every man in the audience shift in their seats and think loudly “Awwww, duuuuude.” So, the main point is whether he is going to float through life or pick up an oar and paddle.

It was also cathartic in that the climactic event is a fight scene in which one character gets a few teeth knocked out. And given that the guy missing a few teeth has been a real hardcore jackass the entire show, and he’s played by the same guy who was the weak bastard in Fat Pig, it was kind of a joy to see him get a pounding. Almost to the point that I was clapping my hands and chanting “hit him again, hit again.” And it came complete with blood. Gruesome. And awesome.

I don’t know if Neil LaBute grew up as a playwright in the time it took to write these three plays, or if he planned to tell this story arc in the first place. Viewed in context, there’s a lovely triptych format (sorry, sometimes the English major will emerge). Point-counterpoint-synthesis. I’m glad I stuck it out. The last play adds the grace note of hope.