“This Is How It Goes”
Written by Neil LaBute
Showing: Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway, through March 2
Tickets: $25-$30
Contact: (773) 549-1815; profilestheatre.org

By Brian Kirst

Contributing writer

As is often the case with Neil LaBute’s writing, “This Is How It Goes” revolves around a concept as opposed to fully articulated characters. This would automatically dismiss many playwrights. LaBute’s work, however, is prophetically beautiful and constantly provocative. His focus here, in Profiles Theatre’s second to last show in their LaBute season, is on the many variations of truth and how they can collide with our everyday internal racism.

A writer who at the outset tells us that he is an unreliable narrator returns to his hometown and reconnects with Melinda, the beautiful girl he had a crush on in high school. Melinda is married to the former town jock, Cody, a black man. As the narrator’s tale progresses he and Melinda grow close. We also discover through the narrator’s eyes that Cody, a very successful businessman, is a cold and emotionally violent individual. The narrator determines he must win Melinda for himself and bursts out with occasional racist attitudes towards Cody.

As in LaBute’s films “In the Company of Men” and “Your Friends and Neighbors” there is little to like about the characters presented here. The men are manipulative and often not likeable. Melinda is a cipher—either a goddess or a noose as seen through their perspective eyes. It is LaBute’s writing, full of humor and odd beauty, which carries us through here. His occasional details, such as a character mentioning that a future child will suffer from a burst eardrum during swim practice, truly captivate.

Because of these artistically rendered moments, LaBute also pulls off his greatest feat. Even more than focusing on our own inherent racism, we wonder about these characters afterward. Is the narrator more than just an occasional racist? Is Cody truly as bad as he is painted to be? Did Melinda truly marry Cody for the attention it would bring or because she truly loved him? We may not care much for these people, but they draw us in. LaBute, as in one of his most popular works, “The Shape of Things”, also scores with an emotional twist near the end that renders a complexity and added interest to everything that has gone before it.

Director Darrell Cox is obviously attracted to LaBute’s controversial intelligence and renders a staging of accomplished detail. He wrings every bit of amusement and tension out of LaBute’s scenario. Cox is immeasurably aided by Thad Hallstein’s expansive, detailed set and by a committed ensemble.

Eric Burgher fills the narrator with a nervous energy that eventually endears despite the character’s multiple shortcomings. Lindsay Schmidt gives Melinda a focused and compassionate nature that would send many high school boys (and full-grown men for that matter) to their knees. Sean Nix commits fully to Cody. He has the most difficult job as Cody is often seen negatively through the narrator’s eyes. Nix savors the moments when he is able to add a dash of humor or despair to Cody’s normally sullen nature. He and the rest of the cast fully embrace LaBute’s complex vision and are truly worthy of any post-show analyses that occur.