Reasons to Be Happy
Written by Neil LaBute
Directed by Darrell W. Cox
at Profiles Theatre, 4139 N. Broadway (map)
thru Oct 12 | tickets: $35-$40 | more info
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Revisiting four LaBute characters struggling with adulthood
Profiles Theatre presents
Reasons to Be Happy
Review by John Olson
The word “happy” in a Neil LaBute title? To those who know the predecessor to this play, LaBute’s reasons to be pretty, that word is not such a non-sequitur. While none of the four characters who appear in the two plays are exactly happy, neither are they the deeply cruel people that are associated with many of LaBute’s other pieces. Greg, Steph, Carly and Kent are four lower middle class youngish adults in a working class Chicago suburb just trying to figure out their lives. reasons to be pretty, which ran off Broadway in 2008 and on Broadway in 2009, is a particularly rich play. Most of it is set in the break room of a warehouse or distribution center where Greg, Kent and Carly work – a plain, harshly lit room of cinder block walls where an especially obnoxious buzzer signals the start and end of break times. This dehumanizing environment and Greg’s hopes of escaping it are part of the story. The rest concerns the breakups of Greg and Steph’s relationship, Carly and Kent’s marriage and Greg and Kent’s friendship. To varying degrees, the characters learn a few things about themselves and about relationships; they all make life changes which we suspect will have varying degrees of success.
It appears the script of Reasons to Be Happy has been trimmed by some 35 minutes from its off-Broadway production last year. That New York production had an announced running time of 2 hours, 15 minutes with a 10-minute intermission while this production runs 90 minutes without a break. The brevity helps director Darrell W. Cox keep the actors at a manic pace without a letup until the final scenes, but it seems some motivations may have been lost from the cuts. Steph, who viewers of the earlier play may remember as a tough, independent woman who takes the lead in breaking up with Greg, seems to give up on her unseen husband Tim and form plans for a new go with Greg way too abruptly. To those who know the earlier play, Steph may seem like another person entirely. To those unfamiliar with Steph from reasons to be pretty, she may seem just psychotic. While it’s not a stretch for the audience to fill in the blanks – who among us doesn’t have an old flame that hasn’t entirely been extinguished? – the motivations seem sketchy. Likewise with Greg: while in reasons to be pretty, Greg showed a certain stasis in his relationship with Steph, he didn’t seem fully committed to her. What’s the attraction now to the woman who dumped him three years ago? Again, none of this is implausible. Greg’s torn between the history he shares with an old love and thrill of a new one with someone else, but it would still be helpful to see more of this than to have to infer it.
Carly and Kent aren’t so mysterious. Carly’s still working as a security guard at the warehouse (which we see again, in Shaun Renfro’s set design).After three years of living as a single mom with the daughter Kent fathered with her before the two split up, we can understand why she’d be ready for some romance (and help in parenting) from the likable Greg. The hot-headed Kent, whose infidelities caused the breakup, is learning single life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and his growing frustration with life has only exacerbated his considerable anger-management issues.
By the end of Reasons to Be Happy, Carly is again the most together of the lot, but the others all inch toward some personal growth. Cox’s cast – a completely different one from the actors who played these characters in Profiles’ 2011 reasons to be pretty – all have the intensity to perform the breakneck pace and high volume that Cox has chosen. Eric Burgher is relentlessly nice and earnest as Greg, while Domenica Cameron-Scorsese makes a manic Steph. Sarah Loveland is both sexy and empathetic as the very decent Carly. Dennis Bisto is so tightly wound as Kent, you imagine he could punch holes in the scenery each night. Cox might have given the four actors (and the audience) a little more time to breathe, but we get their angst in the intense paces Cox puts them through.
This isn’t as meaty of a play as reasons to be pretty, but it’s funny and real enough to justify a return visit to these characters. In a program note, LaBute says he’s working on a follow-up to this play, to complete a “reasons” trilogy about Greg, Steph, Carly and Kent. It’s not likely he’ll give them all a “happily ever after,” but there’s more to be learned about the four as they struggle to put together their adult lives.
Rating: ★★★
Reasons to Be Happy continues through October 12th at Profiles Theatre’s Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway (map), with performances Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays 5pm and 8pm, Sundays 7pm. Tickets are $35-$40, and are available by phone (773-549-1815) or online through PrintTixUSA.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at ProfilesTheatre.org. (Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission)
Photos by Michael Brosilow
artists
cast
Eric Burgher (Greg), Domenica Cameron-Scorsese (Steph), Sarah Loveland (Carly), Dennis Bisto (Kent)
behind the scenes
Darrell W. Cox (director), Shaun Renfro (scenic design), Raquel Adorno (costume design), Claire Chrzan (lighting design), Jeffry Levin (original music, sound design), Scott Wolf (assistant director), Jennifer Kiehl (stage manager), Jacob Puralewski (technical director), Cameron Petty (assistant light design), Georgia Cove (costume assistant), Michael Brosilow (photos)
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