The Wake

Sunday, February 11 the Twin Cities Theater Company presented the last of eight performances of The Shape of Things at the Old Arizona Theater. Local acting teacher and consultant Randy Reyes directed the play, written by Neil Labute in 2001.

Buddy Haardt, a University of Minnesota Guthrie Theater Professional Actor Training Program student, stars as Adam, a somewhat nerdy and socially awkward undergrad at a small university. While working as a guard at the local art museum Adam runs into Evelyn (Kate Lawrey), a rebellious art student working on her masters thesis. Adam, who has hardly even talked to a woman since he came to college, is immediately flattered by the attention Evelyn gives him. After the two begin dating he starts to change, responding to some gentle prodding from his new girlfriend. He ditches his prescription glasses in favor of contacts, begins styling his hair, and throws out his favorite jacket, which he wore everywhere before Evelyn came along.

Julliard-trained director Randy Reyes leads a stellar cast through this exploration of the concepts of art and truth. Haardt steals the show with his completely honest and down-to-earth portrayal of Adam. He manages to throw Adam’s smallest mannerisms into every scene, from his nervous laugh to his self-conscious posture and facial expressions. Lawrey also shines as the pretentious and manipulative Evelyn. The Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program senior captures Evelyn’s sexy, over-confident attitude, and makes it easy to see how the gullible Adam would fall for her ruse.

Supporting actors Melissa Anne Murray and Andrew Hovelson (a co-founder of TCTC), both graduates of the Guthrie Actor Training Program, give solid performances as an engaged couple who are dragged into Evelyn’s conniving game. Murray, a veteran of the Minneapolis theater scene, is quiet and reserved. Her character Jenny once had a crush on Adam, and it becomes obvious that she is the right girl for him. Hovelson received the most laughs from the small crowd at the Old Arizona, playing Adam’s former roommate, the overbearing, macho Phillip. One of the most compelling scenes of the play features a bitter argument between Hovelson and Lawrey that helps lead to the disintegration of Adam and Phillip’s relationship.

The sparse set, which sits on Old Arizona’s ground-level stage, features only a couple of props: a couch to represent an apartment, a table for the coffee shop, a futon for the bedroom. Video projections accompanying these objects onto a large screen behind the stage. Here we see the intended backdrop for the scenes. When Adam and Evelyn meet at the art museum, a shot of people mingling at an art exhibit shows on the screen. During a moment at Phillip’s apartment, the accompanying video features a small fish tank in front of window overlooking a small city. Between scenes the actors and two assistants quickly maneuvere the props into place, while music from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays. The music blends seamlessly with the sparse set and small cast, assisting in the transition from scene-to-scene.

“Exploring art through the performing art of theater was something that really intrigued me and I encouraged the designers to use the stage as a canvas and the actors as raw material,” Reyes continues.

When the semester is over Adam is invited to view the unveiling of Evelyn’s thesis project. The last few months have seen his relationship with Evelyn escalate to the point where he has asked for her hand in marriage. He arrives at the presentation to find that he has been the subject of her project the entire semester. Evelyn presents her thesis, her “sculpture” of a human being, to a large crowd of professors, students and townspeople, detailing how she manipulated her subject, Adam, into changing into an almost entirely different person. She also reveals that she had never held any true feelings for him, that the entire relationship was just a part of her thesis, the whole experience a lie. In the final scene Adam confronts Evelyn and is forced to finally stand up for himself.

“Put college-aged students into a room in pursuit of ‘art’ and ‘truth’, then have them struggle with their personal morality, and you have The Shape of Things,” says Reyes in his Director’s Notes.