What do you think?
Rate this book
Autobahn
Collection of short plays that take place in the front seat of a car.
Play
First published January 3, 2005
4 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Neil LaBute
83 books120 followersNeil LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.
In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he received an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. He taught drama and film at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a film director. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, and major awards and nominations at the Deauville Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.
LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. In the Company of Men portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and Ben Stiller, was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in orem, A gaggle of saints, and Medea redux) depicting essentially good Latter-day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by Calista Flockhart. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church.
LaBute's 2002 play The Mercy Seat was one of the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, the play was a commercial and critical success.
LaBute's latest film is The Wicker Man, an American version of a British cult classic. His first horror film, it starred Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and was released on September 1, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office.
He is working with producer Gail Mutrux on the screen adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.
In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he received an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. He taught drama and film at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a film director. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, and major awards and nominations at the Deauville Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.
LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. In the Company of Men portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and Ben Stiller, was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in orem, A gaggle of saints, and Medea redux) depicting essentially good Latter-day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by Calista Flockhart. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church.
LaBute's 2002 play The Mercy Seat was one of the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, the play was a commercial and critical success.
LaBute's latest film is The Wicker Man, an American version of a British cult classic. His first horror film, it starred Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and was released on September 1, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office.
He is working with producer Gail Mutrux on the screen adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 8, 2014
- So, hey, it's great to be back honey. Though London was good too. Conference was okay, you know, same old same old, but okay. You know?
- Take a right.
- And I always like the food, they know how to do Indian in London. Restaurants here, they say it's authentic Indian, but it's not. You really notice the difference.
- Next left. You want to get in lane now.
- Oh, and we saw this Neil LaBute play on Wednesday night. Autobahn. Kinda weird seeing an American play in London, we wondered if it would work, but it was pretty good.
- We?
- I went with Celia. Remember, I told you about her? The woman from Oxford who organized that seminar last year. She's still--
- You missed the turn.
- Shit. We'll take the next one and go back. So, yeah, Autobahn, so I was wondering if I'd even stay awake. I was kinda seriously jet-lagged, you know? But it was fun. It's like this series of little skits, and in each one you've got two people sitting together in a car. They have the front of the car up on the stage, like it's the whole set, you know? And--
- Take 84, it's quicker.
- Sure. So nothing happens, they just sit there and talk for ten minutes, but somehow it works. You figure out their whole--
- I want a divorce.
- What?
- We need to take the next exit.
- Got it. So, like I said I thought I'd fall asleep, but I sat there for the whole two hours and I loved it. He's good. Next time I get the chance, I'm seeing more Neil LaBute.
- ...
- Honey, are you okay?
- Honey?
- Honey?
- Take a right.
- And I always like the food, they know how to do Indian in London. Restaurants here, they say it's authentic Indian, but it's not. You really notice the difference.
- Next left. You want to get in lane now.
- Oh, and we saw this Neil LaBute play on Wednesday night. Autobahn. Kinda weird seeing an American play in London, we wondered if it would work, but it was pretty good.
- We?
- I went with Celia. Remember, I told you about her? The woman from Oxford who organized that seminar last year. She's still--
- You missed the turn.
- Shit. We'll take the next one and go back. So, yeah, Autobahn, so I was wondering if I'd even stay awake. I was kinda seriously jet-lagged, you know? But it was fun. It's like this series of little skits, and in each one you've got two people sitting together in a car. They have the front of the car up on the stage, like it's the whole set, you know? And--
- Take 84, it's quicker.
- Sure. So nothing happens, they just sit there and talk for ten minutes, but somehow it works. You figure out their whole--
- I want a divorce.
- What?
- We need to take the next exit.
- Got it. So, like I said I thought I'd fall asleep, but I sat there for the whole two hours and I loved it. He's good. Next time I get the chance, I'm seeing more Neil LaBute.
- ...
- Honey, are you okay?
- Honey?
- Honey?
January 12, 2021
Understated and subtle, Neil LaBute's Autobahn shoves a series of characters into the confined space of the front seat of a car where the intensity of relationships is inescapable. These duologues tear into the basis of relationships in a quietly comic yet disturbing way. In a sense, it's classic LaBute.
I especially loved the trashy, almost deranged girlfriend whose needy, wheedling attitude manipulates her increasingly uncomfortable college boyfriend into not dumping her ("I'll find work. They have WalMarts all over").
This is comedy of the unsaid, in which the car becomes a prison where characters are forced to have conversations they would rather not have: a mother silently listens as she drives her daughter home from rehab, while the daughter cheerfully announces her intention to get straight back onto drugs; what looks like a father-daughter road trip is revealed as something far more sinister; a man's apology spirals downwards disastrously against the brick wall of his partner's silence.
These are disturbing yet funny vignettes.
I especially loved the trashy, almost deranged girlfriend whose needy, wheedling attitude manipulates her increasingly uncomfortable college boyfriend into not dumping her ("I'll find work. They have WalMarts all over").
This is comedy of the unsaid, in which the car becomes a prison where characters are forced to have conversations they would rather not have: a mother silently listens as she drives her daughter home from rehab, while the daughter cheerfully announces her intention to get straight back onto drugs; what looks like a father-daughter road trip is revealed as something far more sinister; a man's apology spirals downwards disastrously against the brick wall of his partner's silence.
These are disturbing yet funny vignettes.
August 8, 2016
This play was disappointing. Mostly because I had gotten my hopes up for it. From the back cover and even the author's note in the front of the book, I was excited. I liked Mr. LaBute's personality and the concept and the very brief summaries of the stories I'd be reading. And then I read them and they were...sub par.
My biggest issue was the lack variety in the stories and even the characters. From the back cover, I thought that I would be reading very different stories with very different and colorful dynamics between characters. But all of the scenes were between two people. Mostly a man and a woman. And half of them were just long monologues where the other character did nothing. I think either only one of the stories should have been in the monologue style or they all should have been. The balance of this many monologues was just strange and unwelcome.
Then we have the similarities of the characters. Aside from the many that have an unbelievable case of diarrhea of the mouth, we have many other parallels. First is a preoccupation with words. Now, I am a person with a preoccupation with words; most writers probably are. And that's probably why these pieces of dialogue came to Mr. LaBute. But it isn't an all together common trait and it was boring to read about it in character after character. And, after a certain point, it was just absurd. There was a character in, I think, every scene except for one or two that had a preoccupation with some word or another. Obnoxious.
Aside from that little detail, there were more obvious factors. Like the majority of the verbal characters being somewhat to quite noticeably crazy. Like I said, I thought that this book would have interesting dynamics. And yes, people can get kind of crazy a lot of the time, especially when stuck in a car and forced to have a conversation that they don't want to have. But still, a lot of these characters took it too far and not in an interesting way. Female in bench seat--crazy. Young woman in funny--just focusing on the crazy part of her; her illness. Husband in all apologies--crazy in a possibly domestically abusive kind of way. Man in road trip, most disturbingly of all--kidnapping a teenager; crazy. You get my point. One or two of these wouldn't be so bad, but the extreme just seemed like a crutch lacking nuance, rather than a character that is unstable but still has depth to them. These characters lacked depth and were cartoonish. And not in a particularly entertaining way. Of course, seeing them acted would help that, but the text alone wasn't doing any favors.
Now let's just move on the specifically critiquing the scenes, versus mentioning how they do not work well together. I'll just go in order. Funny. The girl was interesting in some ways. Definitely not the stereotype of someone getting out of rehab, which I appreciated. Veering from stereotypes is always appreciated. But I just don't understand why the mom was silent. I mean, I guess that's supposed to be a tribute to the bad parenting that landed this girl with a drug problem in the first place, but still. I don't know if this scene would be funnier on its feet than it was on the page, but this one would definitely need to be funny to be successful. Because otherwise, the whole declaration that the girl is just going to go downhill again and the mom isn't doing a damn thing about it would just be super depressing. Not the best way to start out.
Bench Seat. Like I already said, I didn't like crazy girl. First of all, her paranoia in the whole scene was insufferable. Of course, it made sense for the person that she was revealed to be in the ending, but it made this scene such a slow burn, but not even in the way where there was tension and I was waiting to see what happened. I didn't care what happened, or why she was so paranoid, I just wanted her to shut up. Thankfully, I did like the boy, I guess because he was normal. And a little bit of a know it all pretentious douche like I can be sometimes (like...right now. Sorry.) But mostly he seemed like a nice normal guy. But, on the other hand, the way that he was reacting to crazy girl didn't make for good drama or good progress. It only lent itself to her being annoying all over again ten seconds later. Which, again, I didn't appreciate. So, not a fan of this one, but I do like that Paul Rudd played him, because I can totally see that now!
All Apologies. Monologue number two. This guy is definitely a real person. Unstable, alcoholic, husband, loves his wife, but certainly mistreats her. Sad, but true. And I like that honesty. This is one that--like I should have said with the first scene--I would appreciate more if this were a scene cycle of monologues versus a scene cycle of car scenes. Because I feel like this scene should have been a fight instead of a silent treatment. Because this way I had no idea who the wife was, which took away from the story. I think that we did get the story here that Mr. LaBute wanted us to get, but I just don't think that his aim was the best story. The husband talked in circles and wasn't redeemable and didn't catch my attention for the whole time. I definitely would have zoned out in this scene unless the acting had been really good. And with this repetitive material, it would have to be really, really good.
Merge. Another slow burn. But at least this one had some mystery to it, so I really was waiting to see what happened. But the way that the girl just fell asleep at the end...man, that's someone that I would put an eject seat in my car for. She was a very frustrating character. And the guy kind of was too, because he's kind of pathetic. Wow, I guess one of the themes for why I didn't like this play (as a whole) is just because none of the characters are likeable. And I know that the goal of writing isn't creating likable characters, but with so many opportunities for variety in this story, why did Mr. LaBute have to make all of his character insufferable?
Yeah, we're gonna take a pause here to critique the similarity of the characters again. Yes, most of them are thoroughly unlikeable. It would have been nice for one of these to be, I don't know, a short family drama or something with one or two likeable characters. Just to mix it up. But also, most of these characters are just kind of stupid people. Which always gets me kind of riled up, and not in a good way. Stupid or silent is just about all of them. Come on! There were so many opportunities here for different types of people and instead we just got middle America deadbeats. Thanks.
Long Division. This idea seemed fun to me from the back of the cover. This could have been a cute, fun little story about two bros scheming to get back a beloved game system. But instead it was monologue number three. And in this one, there was absolutely no reason for the other character to be silent. Oh, wait, I'm wrong. He had one line. And man, was it dramatic. And the fact that it was dramatic, was pathetic. Which kind of cancels it out. This one was so bland and disappointing that I read it three days ago and I don't even remember anything from it. Glancing through it again, I'm reminded that I really did like one part of this scene. The part where the boy is talking about how people at the movies were upset that half a second of their movie got ruined and they wanted a refund. That I identify hardcore with. People are just so entitled about these material things and I just want to tell them to let it go and that they'll be okay. Really, this boy telling them that they'd never make it through life is great. Loved that. Would love to be able to tell people off like that. But I don't have the guts. (and most of the people I encounter like this are at work, so I would get in trouble if I did. Dreams, though!)
Road Trip. This one was the most interesting and varied of the bunch, I would say. It is disturbing how normal and not creepy the scene was. The fact that it wasn't creepy made it creepier. Which is a cool mechanic that I've never thought of before. I mean, once again, it was a crazy character. And we don't get the opportunity to understand the girl at all. I mean, she was resisting before the scene but now she's just along for the ride? And she must be at least 15 if she was taking a driver's ed class. So you're just left wondering what is up with these gaps in knowledge that she clearly has and why she's doing this. I guess that you're supposed to be left in that kind of place with a short story like this, but I just wish that I understood better exactly what went down. But I guess this story did its job well. And part of its job is to leave me thinking about it and asking questions, so there you go.
Autobahn. Monologue number four. Again, don't understand why this one was a monologue. And I just feel that such a better topic could have been chosen for the last one than...lack of success with a foster kid. Yikes. I didn't like this one. Because of the monologue thing as well as the fact that the story wasn't interesting. It was upsetting, yes. And unusual. But it was told in such a way that I was just like, uh, that's a bummer. I guess because the woman was so on the surface and had this uncomfortable levity to her. This story could have had weight. But it was just awkward. Bad ending. Don't really know why any of the choices in this one were made.
All this being said, this play wasn't really as bad as I'm making it out to be. It's just frustrating to see an idea with such potential executed so poorly. But hey, maybe someday there'll be a great version of this idea to come to the rescue. And there were moments of light in this one. But they were overshadowed by the piece as a whole falling flat. And so I won't remember the good parts. Such a shame.
My biggest issue was the lack variety in the stories and even the characters. From the back cover, I thought that I would be reading very different stories with very different and colorful dynamics between characters. But all of the scenes were between two people. Mostly a man and a woman. And half of them were just long monologues where the other character did nothing. I think either only one of the stories should have been in the monologue style or they all should have been. The balance of this many monologues was just strange and unwelcome.
Then we have the similarities of the characters. Aside from the many that have an unbelievable case of diarrhea of the mouth, we have many other parallels. First is a preoccupation with words. Now, I am a person with a preoccupation with words; most writers probably are. And that's probably why these pieces of dialogue came to Mr. LaBute. But it isn't an all together common trait and it was boring to read about it in character after character. And, after a certain point, it was just absurd. There was a character in, I think, every scene except for one or two that had a preoccupation with some word or another. Obnoxious.
Aside from that little detail, there were more obvious factors. Like the majority of the verbal characters being somewhat to quite noticeably crazy. Like I said, I thought that this book would have interesting dynamics. And yes, people can get kind of crazy a lot of the time, especially when stuck in a car and forced to have a conversation that they don't want to have. But still, a lot of these characters took it too far and not in an interesting way. Female in bench seat--crazy. Young woman in funny--just focusing on the crazy part of her; her illness. Husband in all apologies--crazy in a possibly domestically abusive kind of way. Man in road trip, most disturbingly of all--kidnapping a teenager; crazy. You get my point. One or two of these wouldn't be so bad, but the extreme just seemed like a crutch lacking nuance, rather than a character that is unstable but still has depth to them. These characters lacked depth and were cartoonish. And not in a particularly entertaining way. Of course, seeing them acted would help that, but the text alone wasn't doing any favors.
Now let's just move on the specifically critiquing the scenes, versus mentioning how they do not work well together. I'll just go in order. Funny. The girl was interesting in some ways. Definitely not the stereotype of someone getting out of rehab, which I appreciated. Veering from stereotypes is always appreciated. But I just don't understand why the mom was silent. I mean, I guess that's supposed to be a tribute to the bad parenting that landed this girl with a drug problem in the first place, but still. I don't know if this scene would be funnier on its feet than it was on the page, but this one would definitely need to be funny to be successful. Because otherwise, the whole declaration that the girl is just going to go downhill again and the mom isn't doing a damn thing about it would just be super depressing. Not the best way to start out.
Bench Seat. Like I already said, I didn't like crazy girl. First of all, her paranoia in the whole scene was insufferable. Of course, it made sense for the person that she was revealed to be in the ending, but it made this scene such a slow burn, but not even in the way where there was tension and I was waiting to see what happened. I didn't care what happened, or why she was so paranoid, I just wanted her to shut up. Thankfully, I did like the boy, I guess because he was normal. And a little bit of a know it all pretentious douche like I can be sometimes (like...right now. Sorry.) But mostly he seemed like a nice normal guy. But, on the other hand, the way that he was reacting to crazy girl didn't make for good drama or good progress. It only lent itself to her being annoying all over again ten seconds later. Which, again, I didn't appreciate. So, not a fan of this one, but I do like that Paul Rudd played him, because I can totally see that now!
All Apologies. Monologue number two. This guy is definitely a real person. Unstable, alcoholic, husband, loves his wife, but certainly mistreats her. Sad, but true. And I like that honesty. This is one that--like I should have said with the first scene--I would appreciate more if this were a scene cycle of monologues versus a scene cycle of car scenes. Because I feel like this scene should have been a fight instead of a silent treatment. Because this way I had no idea who the wife was, which took away from the story. I think that we did get the story here that Mr. LaBute wanted us to get, but I just don't think that his aim was the best story. The husband talked in circles and wasn't redeemable and didn't catch my attention for the whole time. I definitely would have zoned out in this scene unless the acting had been really good. And with this repetitive material, it would have to be really, really good.
Merge. Another slow burn. But at least this one had some mystery to it, so I really was waiting to see what happened. But the way that the girl just fell asleep at the end...man, that's someone that I would put an eject seat in my car for. She was a very frustrating character. And the guy kind of was too, because he's kind of pathetic. Wow, I guess one of the themes for why I didn't like this play (as a whole) is just because none of the characters are likeable. And I know that the goal of writing isn't creating likable characters, but with so many opportunities for variety in this story, why did Mr. LaBute have to make all of his character insufferable?
Yeah, we're gonna take a pause here to critique the similarity of the characters again. Yes, most of them are thoroughly unlikeable. It would have been nice for one of these to be, I don't know, a short family drama or something with one or two likeable characters. Just to mix it up. But also, most of these characters are just kind of stupid people. Which always gets me kind of riled up, and not in a good way. Stupid or silent is just about all of them. Come on! There were so many opportunities here for different types of people and instead we just got middle America deadbeats. Thanks.
Long Division. This idea seemed fun to me from the back of the cover. This could have been a cute, fun little story about two bros scheming to get back a beloved game system. But instead it was monologue number three. And in this one, there was absolutely no reason for the other character to be silent. Oh, wait, I'm wrong. He had one line. And man, was it dramatic. And the fact that it was dramatic, was pathetic. Which kind of cancels it out. This one was so bland and disappointing that I read it three days ago and I don't even remember anything from it. Glancing through it again, I'm reminded that I really did like one part of this scene. The part where the boy is talking about how people at the movies were upset that half a second of their movie got ruined and they wanted a refund. That I identify hardcore with. People are just so entitled about these material things and I just want to tell them to let it go and that they'll be okay. Really, this boy telling them that they'd never make it through life is great. Loved that. Would love to be able to tell people off like that. But I don't have the guts. (and most of the people I encounter like this are at work, so I would get in trouble if I did. Dreams, though!)
Road Trip. This one was the most interesting and varied of the bunch, I would say. It is disturbing how normal and not creepy the scene was. The fact that it wasn't creepy made it creepier. Which is a cool mechanic that I've never thought of before. I mean, once again, it was a crazy character. And we don't get the opportunity to understand the girl at all. I mean, she was resisting before the scene but now she's just along for the ride? And she must be at least 15 if she was taking a driver's ed class. So you're just left wondering what is up with these gaps in knowledge that she clearly has and why she's doing this. I guess that you're supposed to be left in that kind of place with a short story like this, but I just wish that I understood better exactly what went down. But I guess this story did its job well. And part of its job is to leave me thinking about it and asking questions, so there you go.
Autobahn. Monologue number four. Again, don't understand why this one was a monologue. And I just feel that such a better topic could have been chosen for the last one than...lack of success with a foster kid. Yikes. I didn't like this one. Because of the monologue thing as well as the fact that the story wasn't interesting. It was upsetting, yes. And unusual. But it was told in such a way that I was just like, uh, that's a bummer. I guess because the woman was so on the surface and had this uncomfortable levity to her. This story could have had weight. But it was just awkward. Bad ending. Don't really know why any of the choices in this one were made.
All this being said, this play wasn't really as bad as I'm making it out to be. It's just frustrating to see an idea with such potential executed so poorly. But hey, maybe someday there'll be a great version of this idea to come to the rescue. And there were moments of light in this one. But they were overshadowed by the piece as a whole falling flat. And so I won't remember the good parts. Such a shame.
March 3, 2022
O FEMEIE TÂNĂRĂ într-o maşină. Lângă ea, o FEMEIE MAI BĂTRÂNĂ conduce.
TÂNĂRA: … toate sunt la fel, ştii? Cum le vezi aşa, în viteză, pe marginea drumului. Aşa e. E nostim. Adică, nu nostim-ha-ha ci celalalt fel de nostim. Cum s-ar spune asta? Nostim-ciudat, cred. Sau bizar. Nostim-bizar. E doar… adică, nu mă aşteptam. Chestiile astea ar trebui să-mi fie aşa… familiare. E nostim. Cel puţin, pentru mine. (Pauză) Şi… ce mai face tata? Bine, probabil. Pariu că face bine. Tata întotdeauna face bine. E un tată bun. Mă surprinde că n-a venit şi el, că ţi-a lăsat ţie toată asta pe cap. Nu prea e genul lui. Neobişnuit, oricum. Să facă el asta. A, stai… nu e în oraş, aşa-i? Nu ziceai tu ceva despre asta la telefon, nu-mi amintesc acum. Cred c-ai zis. A zis că nu poate veni – nu că m-a sunat pe mine, să-mi zică chiar el, asta ar fi foarte, mă rog, „ne-tata” din partea lui, dar – cred că-mi amintesc acum. Nu-i acasă. Unde s-o fi dus din nou… Milwaukee? E asta săptămâna de Milwaukee? Da, bănuiesc că trebuie să fie. Huh. Eu nu înţeleg asta, chiar deloc… de ce insistă să se ducă cu maşina la fiecare două weekenduri, să se ducă acolo sus să-i vadă pe Bunica şi Bunicul. Lor nu le pasă că el face asta, nici măcar nu-l vor acolo, eu îmi dau seama, de câte ori am fost acolo cu el. Stau acolo, pe canapeaua aia florală a lor, şi se uită la tine. Prin tine, de fapt, asta ar fi o descriere mai fidelă. Ei se uită prin tine. Poate e din cauza cataractei la ea, sau mă rog, sau medicamentul ăla pentru subţierea sângelui pe care-l ia el, dar e ca şi cum ai fi acolo, ei simt că e cineva în cameră, dar nu-şi dau seama exact cine e. Adică, în mod special. (Pauză) Sau… pur şi simplu nu sunt nişte oameni prea simpatici. Şi asta ar putea fi o explicaţie. Ar putea fi nişte oameni ursuzi, bătrâni şi răi care nu dau nici un căcat pe nimeni, şi doar pentru că sunt fragili şi drăguţi şi toate alea nu înseamnă nimic. Pentru că îmbătrânim, nu, creştem în vârstă şi toate astea, dar asta nu schimbă cine suntem. Schimbă? În nici un caz. Nu schimbă… adică, doar pentru că un tip, un membru Ku-Klux-Klan devine prea bătrân ca să mai pună o funie în jurul gâtului unui copil negru, asta nu înseamnă că n-ar vrea. Corect? Aşa cred, oricum. Doar pentru că nu putem nu înseamnă că n-am vrea să…
TÂNĂRA: … toate sunt la fel, ştii? Cum le vezi aşa, în viteză, pe marginea drumului. Aşa e. E nostim. Adică, nu nostim-ha-ha ci celalalt fel de nostim. Cum s-ar spune asta? Nostim-ciudat, cred. Sau bizar. Nostim-bizar. E doar… adică, nu mă aşteptam. Chestiile astea ar trebui să-mi fie aşa… familiare. E nostim. Cel puţin, pentru mine. (Pauză) Şi… ce mai face tata? Bine, probabil. Pariu că face bine. Tata întotdeauna face bine. E un tată bun. Mă surprinde că n-a venit şi el, că ţi-a lăsat ţie toată asta pe cap. Nu prea e genul lui. Neobişnuit, oricum. Să facă el asta. A, stai… nu e în oraş, aşa-i? Nu ziceai tu ceva despre asta la telefon, nu-mi amintesc acum. Cred c-ai zis. A zis că nu poate veni – nu că m-a sunat pe mine, să-mi zică chiar el, asta ar fi foarte, mă rog, „ne-tata” din partea lui, dar – cred că-mi amintesc acum. Nu-i acasă. Unde s-o fi dus din nou… Milwaukee? E asta săptămâna de Milwaukee? Da, bănuiesc că trebuie să fie. Huh. Eu nu înţeleg asta, chiar deloc… de ce insistă să se ducă cu maşina la fiecare două weekenduri, să se ducă acolo sus să-i vadă pe Bunica şi Bunicul. Lor nu le pasă că el face asta, nici măcar nu-l vor acolo, eu îmi dau seama, de câte ori am fost acolo cu el. Stau acolo, pe canapeaua aia florală a lor, şi se uită la tine. Prin tine, de fapt, asta ar fi o descriere mai fidelă. Ei se uită prin tine. Poate e din cauza cataractei la ea, sau mă rog, sau medicamentul ăla pentru subţierea sângelui pe care-l ia el, dar e ca şi cum ai fi acolo, ei simt că e cineva în cameră, dar nu-şi dau seama exact cine e. Adică, în mod special. (Pauză) Sau… pur şi simplu nu sunt nişte oameni prea simpatici. Şi asta ar putea fi o explicaţie. Ar putea fi nişte oameni ursuzi, bătrâni şi răi care nu dau nici un căcat pe nimeni, şi doar pentru că sunt fragili şi drăguţi şi toate alea nu înseamnă nimic. Pentru că îmbătrânim, nu, creştem în vârstă şi toate astea, dar asta nu schimbă cine suntem. Schimbă? În nici un caz. Nu schimbă… adică, doar pentru că un tip, un membru Ku-Klux-Klan devine prea bătrân ca să mai pună o funie în jurul gâtului unui copil negru, asta nu înseamnă că n-ar vrea. Corect? Aşa cred, oricum. Doar pentru că nu putem nu înseamnă că n-am vrea să…
Read
October 3, 2024I’d never have read this on my own, but a friend teaches it to his A-Level English students and lent it to me. It’s a series of very short two-hander plays, all of which are set in a car and all of which are purely dialogue. LaBute is an American playwright whom the literary world seems to have received with the label “misanthrope”. His dialogues do often seem hateful or depressing, but they’re richer than they seem at first glance. In one, a woman returning from a conference is picked up from the airport by her husband; on the course of the drive home, her story about being assaulted in the hotel unravels and a completely different possible reality unfolds. I tend to instinctively dislike texts that can be read as dismissive of assault reports, but this dialogue was so dense with multiple meanings, tiny indicators of things gone wrong in the marriage, that M and I spent a twenty-minute walk dissecting and analysing it. I still wouldn’t choose to read LaBute (if nothing else, I just don’t find this kind of theatrical experience inherently rewarding; it can be made interesting by analysis, but it doesn’t speak to me), but am glad to have had the exposure. Source: borrowed from a friend
July 28, 2017
LaBute had a great ear for dialogue and a knack for writing characters that reveal much more about themselves than they mean to. The concept is great - seven mini-plays set in cars, two people. But. They all felt too similar to me, at least in reading them. And the truth is that most of them are essentially monologues with the second person in the car saying nothing at all. Which I think would get wearisome. I wanted more variety. But still, worth reading and considering.
August 10, 2020
3.5 stars. Some of the little moments Labute captures here are great--he's always been very inciteful, instilling realistic psychological traits into his characters. I do prefer a full length play though. A better collection than Bash, I would say, but I prefer his full-length plays. In a Dark, Dark House particularly captures his wonderful, misanthropic storytelling abilities, if you were looking for somewhere to start other than 'Plays One'.
May 23, 2024
Dans une voiture tout le long. Faque m.e.s. pas intéressante...
Prends une idée et la pousse jusqu'au bout. Similaire à Etienne Lepage. Déforme et incompréhension
Faque pas à mettre en scène mais bon matériel pour un cours de dramaturgie ou de théâtre peut-être
Prends une idée et la pousse jusqu'au bout. Similaire à Etienne Lepage. Déforme et incompréhension
Faque pas à mettre en scène mais bon matériel pour un cours de dramaturgie ou de théâtre peut-être
June 5, 2024
SO SO GOOD! Most of these plays are monologues, periodically interrupted by characters looking at each other, but it's still awesome.
Merge and Autobahn are my favorite two.
Merge and Autobahn are my favorite two.
July 13, 2009
If I could, I would give this 4 1/2 stars. I wish I could write like this! Autobahn is a series of short plays, all taking place within the confines of a car. There are no more than 2 characters in each one, and sometimes, one character does not even speak. The humor, and sometimes absurdity reminded me of some of Pinter's early work, like A Night Out.
My favorite was the play entitled "Long Division." The fact that Christopher Meloni played the character just kept cracking me up. Sometimes the humor can be lost when read instead of spoken, so picturing him talking about eating Twizzlers and playing Mortal Combat really added something extra.
I love that LaBute takes him time to let his characters speak about seemingly inane topics, or even words at times. These extended dialogues really flesh out the characters and give them meaning. Absolutely great!
My favorite was the play entitled "Long Division." The fact that Christopher Meloni played the character just kept cracking me up. Sometimes the humor can be lost when read instead of spoken, so picturing him talking about eating Twizzlers and playing Mortal Combat really added something extra.
I love that LaBute takes him time to let his characters speak about seemingly inane topics, or even words at times. These extended dialogues really flesh out the characters and give them meaning. Absolutely great!
October 9, 2007
Having loved LaBute's Bash so much, I had high hopes for this collection of short plays. It bears much of his signature style, but the only two stand out plays (in my opinion) are the monologue in which a woman coming from rehab explains to her mother that she will go straight for drugs again once she's home and a play where a couple goes up to Lover's Lane so the boyfriend can break up with the girlfriend, only to find that the girlfriend is a) totally paranoid about being dumped up there, since it happened to her before and b) slightly insane.
January 4, 2012
My first LaBute (okay, I've seen Bash some years ago but can't remember much about it, except that I mainly liked it) and I'm impressed. The Road Trip was the only one I didn't care about, The Long Division wondered around for a while but the ending is great. The rest of the plays were all really good. Extremely funny stuff, hilarious, especially the one that's probably also my favorite: the man trying to come up with words to apologize in All Apologies. This just hit my sense of humour. Fantastic dialogue.
October 31, 2016
Assistant directing a production of this and I'm really excited to play around with it cause the premise is brilliant. People in cars - so simple yet so much can happen behind the wheel! The naturalistic setting allows an audience to go from comedy to tears and everything in between as real conversations and monologues happen with characters that seem realistically flawed. I would say my favourite piece is 'Merge' but they all stand alone as solid pieces which I think would be great for auditions too! I just really like it ngl.
February 6, 2017
I had to do a scene for Acting class from the "Merge" section in "Autobahn".
February 4, 2011
Great little short,simple plays that take place in cars. The dialogue is masterful. Labute really is one of today's best playwrights. He has an impish take on people and their interactions and really has the best ear for realistic & revealing dialogue.
This was hard to put down once started. I have one more of his plays, Fat Pig, which I can not wait to read.
This was hard to put down once started. I have one more of his plays, Fat Pig, which I can not wait to read.
August 28, 2007
Interesting collection of short plays that take place in the front seat of a car. Typical Neil Labute, scathing and darkly comic.
November 9, 2009
granted, there were one or two decent plays in here, but most of it was just.... blah.
January 2, 2010
Let's face it. I'm a fan of all Neil Labute- this collection of his however, is probably some of my least favorite... if that's possible.
September 7, 2011
Hit and miss, but none but the awesome scenes are very long. Outrageous things are talked about subtlely.
January 16, 2014
Interesting collection of short plays! I loved them - but I really prefer LaBute's longer works. None of these felt completely finished to me.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews