With plays like “Fat Pig” and movies like “In the Company of Men,” Neil LaBute made a career out of antagonizing audiences. His usual MO is to expose our baser instincts by throwing unpleasant people into unpleasant situations, profanity-laced arguments and vicious mind games.
But the most shocking thing about LaBute’s new play, “Reasons To Be Happy,” is that it’s not shocking.
We’ve met the characters before — on Broadway four years ago, in “Reasons To Be Pretty.” In this sequel, they’re played by a new batch of actors that includes Jenna Fischer, best known as Pam on “The Office.” Her character, Steph, is as selfish and calculating as Pam is sweet, and Fischer gives her a sullen defensiveness.
Steph is introduced the same way as in the previous show — in the middle of a furious dispute with Greg (Josh Hamilton). Except they’re not a couple anymore, and she’s annoyed because he’s dating her best friend, Carly (Leslie Bibb, TV’s “Popular”). Never mind that Steph herself is married.
In this scene, LaBute, who also directed, nails the bad faith, the grasping at straws, the defensive barbs that mark a tasty brawl. And the foes here are equally irritating: Steph looks as if she wants Greg back mostly out of spite, while his puppy-like desire to please is grating. To their credit, the actors don’t sugarcoat their characters.
Once the dust has settled, the story zeroes in on bumbling, fumbling Greg as he tries to choose between the two women and gets unexpectedly sensible advice from his old buddy Kent (Fred Weller) — a burly he-man who happens to be Carly’s ex. The scenes alternate between the break room of the warehouse where Carly works — which set designer Neil Patel renders with bleak realism — and stylized public places, like a parking lot.
Unlike the earlier play, “Reasons To Be Happy” isn’t about communicating through aggression, but about growing up and being at peace with yourself.
That’s especially tough for Greg, a substitute teacher whose love for literature distances him from his lower-middle-class friends. “We live in America, for God’s sake,” Steph rails. “Who gives a s – – t where the Straits of Gibraltar are?” Greg caves in: “I think there’s just one of ’em, but yes, I agree.”
Kent points out that reading doesn’t make his friend any happier. The real problem is that the passive, grunge romantic Greg — LaBute blasts Nirvana between scenes — isn’t even sure what he wants in life.
“Even if you do something stupid, you’re still doing something,” Kent tells him.
A LaBute show ending with hope? Maybe it’s shocking after all.