This Is How It Goes: A Play

by Neil LaBute

Book Overview

Belinda and Cody Phipps appear a typical Midwestern couple: teenage sweethearts, children, luxurious home. Typical except that Cody is black--rich, black, and different, in the words of Belinda, who finds herself attracted to a former (white) classmate. As the battle for her affections is waged, Belinda and Cody frankly doubt the foundation of their initial attraction, opening the door wide to a swath of bigotry and betrayal. Staged on continually...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571211550
• ISBN13: 9780571211555
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Neil LaBute's America

In this play, Neil Labute anatomizes a contemporary "mixed" marriage, in the process telling us much about American love and friendship in their current forms. Though somewhat similar in its dramatic action to the romantic triangle of "In The Company Of Men," this newer work as a drama of ideas is infinitely richer. What LaBute's plot reveals throughout is that the individualism, on which so many of us pride ourselves, in its present tattered shape can in no sense be confused with mature personhood. Absent from the world of the play is any evenly diffused, widely accepted, high-minded code of manners which might mould, encourage, and restrain certain behavior patterns. Instead, each of the three characters is largely his or her own carver. Left mainly with themselves to fall back upon, the three are, in fact, ignorant of being the most miserable of creatures. Their highest idea of realizing their humanity involves various acts, real or feigned, of "defiance." In standing out by offending others, then, they chiefly live, and move, and have their being. The few remnants of older and questionable community standards that do appear involve, first, the endorsement of working hard so as to become rich and arouse the envy of one's neighbors, and, second, the sad heritage of racism which still infects blacks and whites alike. Thus, as his m.o., Cody, the hard-working husband in the "mixed" marriage, instinctively plays the race card. Similarly, the play's narrator, Man, finds lurking just under the surface of his "educated" self an abundance of racial slurs at the ready. Each of these characters, as the closing scene reveals, even when physically together, is shockingly and sadly "alone." Labute uses with considerable cleverness the dramatic device of a narrator who addresses us directly to put the audience in the same position toward the truth of situations that the characters often find themselves in. Forced upon us then is an awareness of the frequent opacity of one person to another at any given moment in life. I don't think the play is suggesting there is no truth in a specific situation, for if that were so it would be impossible for a character to lie. And LaBute's guys are both pretty accomplished liars. Rather the telling dramatic point, for audience and characters alike, is that in a given situation we ourselves may easily be deceived. In "Othello," Shakespeare uses Iago as liar in similar fashion. Audiences tend to take his opening remarks about bookish Cassio and ignoble Othello as true, only to be forced to radically revise what they've too quickly swallowed once these characters themselves appear on stage. In both plays, we tend not to find the characters who've been misled or lied to improbably gullible, since we may ourselves have rushed to judgment after having been told not truth but only a possibility or even a self-serving whopper. The play, as all LaBute's works, has commendable realistic and frequently witty dialogue as well as r

This is how it reads..

This is how it goes, in an entertaining play to read. However the characters seem detached from themselves their lives. Maybe that is LaButes aim, however the problem being that I never felt any real empathy for these characters, only sympathy. But again that adds something to the whole feeling of the play. Maybe this is a view of a particular type of people who live in the states. I did however like the way LaBute represented an element of the modern marriage. I enjoyed reading this play, it keep my interest, but not my heart.

AN EXCELLENT STORY AND PRODUCTION

I was lucky enough to see this play in production--it was an amazing cast and they served the piece very well. What a great surprise Ben Stiller was in the lead role! I thought the writing and direction were terrific; reading the script is fun because you can see many of the changes that took place during the course of rehearsals. There are some outstanding monologues (LaBute usually features those in his scripts) and it has a really fine structure, unlike anything else of his that I've read. Highly recommended!

Labute is an amazing playwright

My reaction to this play reminded me a lot of my reaction to "The Shape of Things." It was: Wow! I've read almost all of Labute's material, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I really got into the story. I loved the dialogue, I loved the tension, and I loved how Labute builds and build--how well-crafted his plays are. I really don't want to give away much of the story. So, all I'll say is that in the first few pages the main character comes back into his childhood town, happens to meet a girl that he knew 12 years ago, flirts with her, and decides to rent a room from her and her husband. This play uses the N word a few times. And, as with all of Labute's plays, I recommend that you read the introduction after you've read the play.

One of his best plays

One of Neil Labute's best plays this play once again lays bare the hypocrisy of middle America. A wonderful 3 person tour-de-force.