This is a play about love and art, and the lengths someone will go to reach out and take hold of something real and tangible from each, or both, of these two abstract concepts. Like love, art is an entirely subjective experience that two people, sharing in the same experience, may have two completely different takes on - this is fundamentally what this play is about. A cross between Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray and Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Neil LaBute’s romantic comedy drama, set in a small university town in the American Midwest, aims to reveal the contrivances that make up our reality. ‘Art for art’s sake’ certainly rings true, as Adam undergoes cosmetic surgery for his art student girlfriend Evelyn, before realising that he is in fact the real-life sculpture for her final end of year project
The problem with this production is that it is an adult play performed by teenagers. Seriously adult themes, issues, and dialogue all sat rather awkwardly with this young cast, who traipsed around the stage like a small girl in her mother’s shoes and a son in his father’s oversized suit. Maintaining the American vernacular hindered the performers and ensured that it was not only the accents that were artificial and forced. This was an inappropriately chosen play by the Brylights drama society and only slightly redeemed by the cast’s commitment.
