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Things We Said Today: Short Plays and Monologues
Things We Said Today features the scripts for Neil LaBute’s groundbreaking Directv project 10x10―a series of short films written and directed by LaBute based on ten compelling original monologues, five each for men and women. Also included are five short plays displaying the power and scope of Neil LaBute’s creative vision. In Pick One, three white guys come up with a way to solve America’s problems; in The Possible one young woman seduces another’s boyfriend for an unexpected reason. Call Back features an actress and actor who spar about a past encounter that she, unnervingly, remembers much better than he does. Good Luck (In Farsi), “a pleasingly astringent study in competitiveness and vanity” (The New York Times) has two actresses pulling out all the stops in a preaudition psych out; and in Squeeze Play a father and his son’s baseball coach strike a mutually beneficial deal. Rounding out the collection are two monologues commissioned as part of Centerstage’s “My America” project.
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 29, 2014
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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.
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January 14, 2023només he llegit 'aventura' (que crec que es diu romance) i vaja... és una escena petitoníssima de microteatre però pesa tant... jolin (és xula eh!)
June 24, 2014
Another vicious, wonderful collection of plays by Neil LaBute, "Things We Said Today" continues the playwright's streak of what I prefer to call 'benevolent misanthropy' - his work, as ever, concludes that humans kind of suck, but there's still somehow some value to be found - even if it's just from watching them fall down.
A stand-out example is one of TenxTen monologues in which a man in his fifties proceeds to explain how much he loves his wife and his marriage, and how he completely understands *why* the gay community wants to get married, but can't really stand for it. In an amazing feat Neil LaBute made me as a reader sympathize with this man who is on the surface just a man in love, but reveals himself to be a bigoted, protective man, who believes gay marriage "ruins it for the rest of us", a viewpoint not heard often but known to exist.
Another stand-out is "Call Back", a short two-hander later adapted into the short film "Denise" on the female-orientated WIGS channel on YouTube (their entire content catalog is worth a look). This one of LaBute's more typical scenes, where we see a young woman toy with a man who's stupid enough to think he has the upper hand in the conversation.
I could write for hours about LaBute's conversations as battles with ebbs and flows of power, but this collection focuses on something different; something a bit more human, though it is written by a famous misanthrope. Absolutely worth a read if you want something that challenges you, though maybe not as much as his other works "Wrecks" or "Some Girl(s)".
A stand-out example is one of TenxTen monologues in which a man in his fifties proceeds to explain how much he loves his wife and his marriage, and how he completely understands *why* the gay community wants to get married, but can't really stand for it. In an amazing feat Neil LaBute made me as a reader sympathize with this man who is on the surface just a man in love, but reveals himself to be a bigoted, protective man, who believes gay marriage "ruins it for the rest of us", a viewpoint not heard often but known to exist.
Another stand-out is "Call Back", a short two-hander later adapted into the short film "Denise" on the female-orientated WIGS channel on YouTube (their entire content catalog is worth a look). This one of LaBute's more typical scenes, where we see a young woman toy with a man who's stupid enough to think he has the upper hand in the conversation.
I could write for hours about LaBute's conversations as battles with ebbs and flows of power, but this collection focuses on something different; something a bit more human, though it is written by a famous misanthrope. Absolutely worth a read if you want something that challenges you, though maybe not as much as his other works "Wrecks" or "Some Girl(s)".
July 18, 2015
As with any anthology of shorter pieces, some are better than others; here, the 10 monologues are all pretty terrific, while the short plays are more problematic. They usually only have a single point that is sometimes (as in 'Good Luck (in Farsi)') are padded out to detrimental effect. Still, LaBute remains one of our most versatile and unique dramatic voices, and this is a worthy collection to add to his ouevre.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews