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Summarized by Kent Larsen
LDS Playwright Neil LaBute's 'Bash' on Showtime Tonight
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- LDS Church member Neil LaBute's controversial show
"Bash: Latterday Plays" will be shown in a television version on the cable
channel Showtime at 8 p.m. tonight. Ahead of the play, several newspapers
reviewed the performances and LaBute's work, acknowledging its dark and
controversial nature, but often praising the work.
The set of three plays, "A Gaggle of Saints," "Medea Redux," and "Iphigenia
in Orem" all feature Mormon characters, but most LDS Church members won't
recognize them because of their basically evil nature. "Just what it has to
do with Mormonism is unclear" writes the LA Weekly in its review of the
show, but speculates that LaBute may be saying that "religion is no
guarantee of right action," not much of a revelation according to the LA
Weekly. Unlike other reviews, the LA Weekly isn't much impressed, saying
that each play ends "not so much as a shock as a relief that it's over and
done with."
Other reviewers are much more impressed. The New York Daily News praises the
performances of Calista Flockhart (TV's Ally McBeal), Ron Eldard and Paul
Rudd, saying that "'Bash' works because the intensity of the monologues is
matched, in every case, by the performances." In the New York Times reviewer
Julie Salamon praises LaBute's text saying he "understands that words
matter. . . . He's tuned in to the strangely poetic rhythms in everyday
speech and the telling details of workaday life." Both the Daily News and
the Times praised LaBute's direction of the filming of the stage version
(directed by Joe Mantello).
LaBute first gained notoriety with his low-budget independent film "In the
Company of Men," which tells the story of mysogynistic men who take
advantage of women while on assignment in a distant city from their
company's home base. "Bash" opened off-Broadway in New York City last year,
and has also been presented in London, Los Angeles and Washington DC.
Sources:
Brutally Superb 'Bash'
New York NY Daily News 28Aug00 A2
It's Evil, and Often It's Not So Banal
New York Times 28Aug00 A2
By Julie Salamon
TV Review: B-Pictures: Bull, Bash, Blonde Bombshells and a Sandy Bottom
LA Weekly 25Aug00 A2
By Robert Lloyd
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