Reasons to be Pretty, Almeida, London

Most men know that when a woman asks: “Does my hair look all right?” she is not necessarily looking for the truth. But what if the woman is not present? How truthful should the man be then? After a couple of beers, Greg, the central character in Neil LaBute’s Reasons to be Pretty, makes a casual remark about his girlfriend Steph having a “regular”, or ordinary, face. When the play opens, she has just found out – and, well, suffice to say she is not happy.

This is the third of LaBute’s plays about personal appearance and it is a cracker: funny, daring, thought-provoking. LaBute examines the obsession with beauty by depicting the damage it inflicts on two young couples in blue-collar America. The tragedy is that Greg (Tom Burke) really loves Steph (Siân Brooke), though he seems unable to articulate it. Meanwhile Kent (Kieran Bew), Greg’s fellow worker at a warehouse, knows how to say all the right things to Carly (Billie Piper), his pretty, pregnant wife, but is in fact lusting after Crystal in the shipping office. As Carly grows heavier, Kent starts cheating on her, swearing Greg to secrecy. Soon all four are entangled in a thicket of half-truths, misunderstandings and betrayals.

Sometimes LaBute sacrifices credibility to make his points: Greg ostentatiously reads Hawthorne to demonstrate his sensitivity, yet he fails to patch up his relationship. And Kent is such a superficial idiot that you can’t understand why either Greg or Carly would stick with him. But the play explores thorny territory with nerve and wit, and subtly depicts the way our insecurity can drive our behaviour in irrational directions. Why does Steph freak out quite so much over a stray remark? Why does Greg not try to understand her reaction? Why does Kent persist in chasing younger skirts?

LaBute also moves the play into deeper waters, creating unexpectedly moving scenes. In one, Greg and Steph, now estranged, meet accidentally and their regret at what they have lost comes across painfully.

On Soutra Gilmour’s witty cargo container set, Michael Attenborough’s fine cast bring out both comedy and pathos, with Burke excellently suggesting the pain beneath Greg’s droll, laid-back exterior. almeida.co.uk