Question

Compare The Shape of Things as a drama to Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Answer 1

The Shape of Things

The Shape of Things written by Neil LaBute, aims to decipher this obscure and long-prodded question. This Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club production, directed by Allen J. MacLeod ’14, takes a sparse, character-focused look at such unsettled thematic questions through the lens of a rapidly disintegrating relationship.

Adam is a socially awkward, literature-loving student who has never been in a serious relationship. He catches Evelyn, a Master of Fine Arts graduate student, defacing a piece of artwork at the museum where he works, and due to that chance meeting the two start dating. When Adam starts changing on Evelyn’s request—first his hair, then his weight, then his nose—her motives, and their relationship, come into question.

By staging the play all in white, MacLeod locates the play’s dramatic center in its characters. “There are certain shows that are a spectacle. This is not one of them. This show is about the characters, their interactions, and their story,” says MacLeod. “I want the audience to shape their own vision of what’s happening on stage.”

The play toys with ideas about art and its motives as well as the subjectivity of relationships by breaking down the distinction between the two in a way that is disturbing yet ultimately satisfying. “This play is going to shock you because it’s something that could happen to anyone. You think something is so real and so right, but it isn’t,” says Leonie A. Oostrom ’15, who plays Jenny, Adam’s college friend. The play “makes you think twice about what is means to be in a relationship and look at yourself in the mirror,” says Rossi.

Although the play deals with intellectually heavy topics like the meaning of art and power dynamics, in the underbelly of it all is a “love story that is funny,” says Rossi. Like all LaBute’s best plays, “The Shape of Things” is fraught with black humor, capable of making the worst of situations relatable and humorous. “The show is very relevant to the people here,” says MacLeod. “It has a lot to do with self-image and what people are willing to do to fit in.”

Macbeth:

Macbeth is a tale of ambition and so Shakespeare uses the titular character's motives to convey the dangers of being too ambitious. We can relate this to modern society as it is human nature to succumb to temptation and so Shakespeare gives warning of the outcome of ambition. The play was written to scare off anyone trying to overthrow King James - implying that anyone that would dare do so was in alliance with the devil (as Macbeth was with the witches) and that they would suffer an unsavoury downfall like Macbeth - and also to win favour with the new king. Today, this still carries an important message as it teaches the reader to exercise restraint when it comes to their secret desires and to be aware of the consequences that these desires hold. Macbeth, during the time the play was written, would have been considered a villain, however, we as contemporary readers recognise that Macbeth was only human and could not help but wonder at what could be instead of accepting his new title of Thane of Cawdor. Take, for example, a gambler. They make a small win and feel invincible so keep betting and betting because their greed consumes their rational thinking and soon, instead of winning, they risk all and lose. Just like the eponymous character, they lose themselves in the possibility of something better. Macbeth is an exaggeration of the dangers that come with greed and ambition but is still relevant today due to man's inability to exercise restraint when it comes to desire.