This Is How It Goes, Neil LaBute’s second play to open in central London in May, is a knowing, wickedly humorous and highly intelligent examination of love in a climate of racism. Set in a small town in the American midwest, it tells the story of a love triangle between Man, the play’s narrator, and an interracial married couple, black Cody and white Belinda.
LaBute takes this banal tale of desire and infidelity and gives it a gobsmacking spin by making Man an “unreliable narrator”, which means that he doesn’t always tell the whole truth. But Man not only messes with our heads by telling different versions of key scenes, he is also a terrible racist - or is he?
LaBute writes best when he tells ugly truths about the way men really feel about women and a lot of the sheer theatricality of this piece comes from the fact that both Man and Cody appear to be charming characters. Until, that is, LaBute reveals - in a moment of amazing outrageousness - exactly what they are really up to. Poor Belinda doesn’t stand a chance.
Moises Kaufman directs this tricksy yet satisfying drama with a mix of precision and aplomb. A crack cast, starring Ben Chaplin as a smooth if slightly gawky Man, with Idris Elba as Cody and Megan Dodds as Belinda, hit both the laugh lines and the eye-popping revelations with equal skill. On Tim Hatley’s neat set, with its neon-filled back wall, this sizzling tale is one of the most exciting pieces of theatre on the London stage.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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