Modern takes on standards of beauty in LaBute play

“Reasons to Be Pretty” often is considered entry-level Neil LaBute. It’s the first of his plays to run on Broadway – and earned three Tony nominations. It’s considered a fairly accessible work.

Still, it’s not Frank Capra. It’s full of sharp elbows and sharper tongues. “Reasons to Be Pretty” features an opening segment that New York Times reviewer Ben Brantley called a “firestorm of abuse and invective, hot enough to scald the hide off a thick-skinned man.”

LaBute, a 1979 graduate of Central Valley High School, is a filmmaker and playwright whose stories deal with relationships and big societal questions. His characters often aren’t nice to each other. There’s yelling and cursing and lying and crying. In “Reasons to Be Pretty,” four characters argue about American beauty standards as the reality of their dead-end lives dawns on them.

The play opens tonight at the Modern Theater Spokane and is directed by Dawn Taylor Reinhart. While she was familiar with LaBute’s other works, “Pretty” was new to her.

“I’m very familiar with Neil LaBute’s style of writing, and also the rawness of his work,” she said.

She agrees that “Pretty” is not as difficult to watch as some other LaBute works, which include films such as “The Company of Men” and the plays “Fat Pig” and “The Mercy Seat.”

“When I first read the pieces, I put it aside and went, ‘Huh, where’s the left turn? Where’s the in-your-face, grabbing you by the hair?’ ” she said. “Where is that shock?”

Even without “that shock,” there are “constant hard-edged realities. … I’m going to be very surprised if I do not hear gasps. Gasps of ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe they just said that.’ ”

That opening scene? The firestorm? If she had to guess, Reinhart would say it includes 50 to 60 curse words. In seven minutes.

“He truly writes like people speak. He doesn’t put it in fancy poetic terms,” she said. “He speaks with a rawness and commonness of how we speak. There’s no sugar-coating anything.”

The story centers on Greg, who makes an off-hand comment about his girlfriend Stephanie and her average looks, which sets her off. When his best friend Kent and his wife, Carly, enter the fray, things get more complicated.

Nich Witham, a familiar face on Spokane stages and last seen as Jim O’Connor in “The Glass Menagerie” at the Modern, tackles a new challenge as Kent, Reinhart said.

“Different role for him. I’m excited for people to see what he brings to the table this time around because it’s not a classic piece. It’s a contemporary, modern, real person with a rawness about him that I’ve not seen him do yet,” she said. “This is the antithesis of what we’ve seen him do.”

Ryan Shore, who was the third Mr. Hyde in “Jekyll & Hyde” at Spokane Civic Theatre this fall, also is acting outside his comfort zone. He’s been used to hiding in character pieces, behind physical traits or costumes, she said. As Greg in “Pretty,” there’s none of that.

“There’s no hiding with these characters,” Reinhart said. “All four of them, bless their hearts, have truly had to work deep. They’ve been on an emotional journey during this process.”

Rounding out the cast are Molly Tage as Stephanie and Jennie Oliver, making her Modern debut as Carly.

It had been several years since a LaBute work had been staged in the Spokane area, but in recent months we’ve seen a LaBute boom. Stage Left presented two of the three “Bash” plays and hosted a reading of “The Shape of Things,” which was fully staged at North Idaho College. In June, the Modern will tackle “Reasons to Be Happy,” as well.

“Every time we turned around someone was doing a LaBute piece,” Reinhart said. “I think we’re just ready for it. I think people are ready to get away from fluff. Definitely not fluff is LaBute.”