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Post by partytentdown on Feb 16, 2018 9:45:43 GMT
The playwright Neil Labute has been fired by the off-Broadway theatre company MCC after a 15-year playwright residency, and his upcoming play has been cancelled. No further details, but expect more as New York wakes up...
I think it's fair to say his plays aren't considered particularly friendly to women.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2018 12:19:29 GMT
The playwright Neil Labute has been fired by the off-Broadway theatre company MCC after a 15-year playwright residency, and his upcoming play has been cancelled. No further details, but expect more as New York wakes up... I think it's fair to say his plays aren't considered particularly friendly to women. The really weird thing is that all this stuff happened in plain sight with all of us watching in the audience or from the wings and, in many cases, even applauding. So weird. |
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Post by mallardo on Feb 16, 2018 12:34:09 GMT
The playwright Neil Labute has been fired by the off-Broadway theatre company MCC after a 15-year playwright residency, and his upcoming play has been cancelled. No further details, but expect more as New York wakes up... I think it's fair to say his plays aren't considered particularly friendly to women. The really weird thing is that all this stuff happened in plain sight with all of us watching in the audience or from the wings and, in many cases, even applauding. So weird.
All what stuff? LaBute's plays often expose male brutishness toward women and condemn it. The men are always the bad guys. Are you mistaking this for some sort of anti-female bias in his work? So weird.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2018 13:19:11 GMT
From what I've been reading - technically rumour at this point until evidence is supplied or confessions are made - there's been a LOT of stuff happening off stage, and it sounds awfully like anyone who wrote LaBute off as a misogynist for his writing were right all along. Nothing further until it becomes a little more substantial, but a LOT of different people have been saying very similar things, too many to ignore or write off as total fantasists.
(Also, be honest now: if the initial post had specifically said - as a made-up example, any similarity to reality unintentional - "Neil LaBute fired from MCC for sexually harassing interns", would anyone have been surprised?)
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Post by partytentdown on Feb 16, 2018 13:48:31 GMT
I imagine that if he'd been fired for something to do with his work - inappropriate content etc - he would speak up about it. He's been vocal in the past when critics have written about him negatively.
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Post by mallardo on Feb 16, 2018 14:01:29 GMT
I wonder how many people who condemn LaBute's so-called misogyny have actually seen any of his plays? And, if they have, which particular plays are offensive? Whatever his personal conduct may be the knee-jerk response to his work says nothing good about his detractors.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2018 14:16:00 GMT
I haven't seen the entire LaBute oeuvre, but I've seen a good half dozen of his plays, and a couple of his films, and if you want me to pick out my number one piece of evidence in support of his misogyny, then I'm happy to submit Some White Chick as one of the most pointlessly vile things I've ever seen on stage.
I don't even know where to begin with your idea that people who are decrying his work as misogynistic are doing it with no idea what they're talking about. Why are you so quick and so keen to de-legitimise people's opinions? I'm not new to chatting to other theatre fans; believe me, the idea that LaBute's work is misogynistic may not be your opinion, but it is neither new nor is it niche.
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Post by mallardo on Feb 16, 2018 14:38:40 GMT
No, it's not new and not niche, it's people presuming that characters who say and do mean things speak for the author - which in LaBute's case they clearly do not. Some White Chick is the one-act piece about the guys who want to make a snuff film, right? Do you believe LaBute is endorsing these guys? Or might it be that he is reminding us that such people - and such attitudes - exist and need to be confronted? LaBute's subject matter may sometimes be distasteful - and let's give him credit for mellowing considerably over the years - but his work is serious and thoughtful and, IMO, deeply moral.
The fact that you can say (even hypothetically) that you're not surprised at whatever bad conduct LaBute might be accused of because his work reflects attitudes that condone bad conduct, is quite something.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2018 19:18:19 GMT
The really weird thing is that all this stuff happened in plain sight with all of us watching in the audience or from the wings and, in many cases, even applauding. So weird.
All what stuff? LaBute's plays often expose male brutishness toward women and condemn it. The men are always the bad guys. Are you mistaking this for some sort of anti-female bias in his work? So weird.
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Post by 49thand8th on Feb 16, 2018 19:52:09 GMT
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Post by lonlad on Feb 17, 2018 7:37:09 GMT
This couldn't have happened to a less nice guy (!)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2018 14:06:41 GMT
For most people with an ear to the ground in theatre this isn't the most shocking of news. I agree if it was a simple difference of artistic opinion we'd have heard from it by LaBute by now- simply going on past record of being outspoken against his critics. And rightly so (if done in the right way) artists have a 'right of reply' to critique of their work. His silence therefore suggests it's not a simply artistic difference of opinion.
Like @baemax I can't claim to have seen all his work- mainly because his style doesn't do much for me, and well too many plays not enough time to waste on those writers you don't love. Are all his plays offensive and misogynistic to the point of un-watchablity? No. Do they have a certain tone of misogyny that's somewhat off putting on repeat? yes. Is he alone in that? obviously not.
But anyway this seems to be an issue of a company not wanting to work with Neil LaBute the person. For which, again only through rumour, I personally am not surprised and neither are a lot of people.
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