Press Quotes
“Evil wears an all-American glow in Neil LaBute’s BASH: LATTERDAY PLAYS … The characters in this transfixing evening of monologues have that sheen of idealized, corn-country wholesomeness that Madison Avenue has always put such a premium on: clear skin, sparkling eyes and teeth to make an orthodontist cheer. To look at, they’re the human equivalents of a glass of milk. But if you know anything about Mr. LaBute … you probably know already that the milk is laced with arsenic. The stories told in BASH, even the one that occurs beneath a police-interrogation light, all begin with a comforting air of familiarity that goes down bland and easy. Then comes a moment when the taste turns sour, and you feel like gagging. It’s as though characters from Ozzie and Harriet had suddenly pulled a shiv on you … For all its ostensible cynicism, BASH is informed with an earnest, probing moralism as fierce as that of Nathaniel Hawthorne … That’s what Mr. LaBute does best, finding the acid in the blandest substances.” —Ben Brantley, The New York Times