cover design by Yellowstone
Ltd
cover photo by Larry Gilpin/Getty Images
No American playwright has written more compellingly about the subtle ways in which people inflict pain on each other than Neil LaBute. His films In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors both gained critical renown for their biting satire and caustic wit. Now, with THE DISTANCE FROM HERE, he has written his most riveting play yet, an intense look at the dark side of American suburbia.
With little to occupy their time other than finding a decent place to hang out—the zoo, the mall, the school parking lot—Darrell and Tim are two American teenagers who lack direction and purpose in their lives. When Darrell's suspicion about the infidelity of his girlfriend is confirmed, and Tim comes to her defense, there is nothing to brake their momentum as all three speed toward disaster.
"LaBute, in his most ambitious an best play to date, gets inside the emptiness of American culture, the masquerade and the evil of neglect. THE DISTANCE FROM HERE, it seems to me, is a new title to be added to the short list of important contemporary plays."
John Lahr, The New Yorker
"LaBute's skill, and the shortness of the scenes, are compelling...[his] excellent writing generates an exact depiction of empty soulless, thoughtless lives."
Hal Jensen, Times Literary Supplement
Neil LaBute's first film, In the Company of Men, received the New York film Critics Circle Award for best feature and the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival. He as also written and directed Your Friends and Neighbors and The Shape of Things, and directed Nurse Betty and Possession.
originally produced by the Almeida Theater Company, London
originally produced in the U S by Manhattan Class Company, New York
5 M 4 F
Overlook Press: I S B N: 1-58567-371-4, $14.95