Eden Rocks

NEIL LABUTE'S THE SHAPE OF THINGS HITS BROADWAY

■■ eil LaBute's play The Shape of Things, which opens in New York with its London cast in October, at first appears to be a straightforward romp in the Eden of H a college campus. Adam (Paul Rudd) encounters

Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) in a museum, where he works as a guard, just after she has stepped over the security line to deface the genitalia of a sculpture that depicts God. One fully expects Evelyn and Adam and his friends Jenny (Gretchen Mol) and Phillip (Frederick Weller) to tango playfully through a Cowardesque tale of affection and betrayal, perhaps exploring the theme of bohemian life versus bourgeois values. The first scenes seem like a pepped-up version of Friends and glow authentically with the energy and the possibilities of youth.

But there's more to LaBute's clever play than wit and pace.

In his Eden, there is, as well as Adam, Eve, and God, the serpent of manipulation, which tempts with love and a pretty convincing show of artistic integrity. The intoxicated Adam, played endearingly by Rudd, undergoes a radical metamorphosis—he lifts and loses weight with equal enthusiasm, quits biting his nails, and gets a nose job.

In fact, he changes the shape of his things to please his lover, and in this there is a subtle twist to the original story of Eden that seems to have escaped the London critics: instead of woman's being born of a man's breast, man becomes the creation of female imagination and ambition.

The London premiere, held at the temporary premises of the Almeida Theatre, in the scuzzy neighborhood of King's Cross

Station, was a critical and commercial hit. Directed by LaBute, whose films include In the Company of Men,

Nurse Betty, and the soon-to-bereleased Possession, The Shape of Things develops with commendable speed and is whipped along during scene changes by deafening blasts of music from the Smashing Pumpkins.

There is also a very good climax, which I must withhold for fear of ruining the play for American audiences. But in this I do have a doubt. Just as Adam is manipulated by Evelyn, so the audience is manipulated by LaBute, with the result * that the other three characters are compelled to serve his dramatic 5

purpose and are slightly flattened in 2 the process. But I stress that it is an “ exhilarating show, and if the audiences ⅛listen carefully enough, they'll find ° that all the clues are there, even in the * first words spoken by Adam to Evelyn— “ "You stepped over the line." It is not 2 for the last time. HENRY PORTER