by AMY BARRATT

Neil Labute at the Centaur? What will the subscribers say?

Best known, or most notorious, for his film In the Company of Men, Labute is primarily a playwright. His The Shape of Things, which just opened at the venerable theatre, is a funny, clever Pygmalion story in reverse, in which a female art student takes up with a nerdy guy and starts "improving" him. Thanks to the set by Déline Petrone, this production has a refreshingly clean, contemporary look.

I went in not having seen or read the piece, but having read a certain amount about it. Because I'd heard that some consider Labute's work misogynist, I went half-expecting, not to say hoping, to be offended. Hey, there are worse reactions to have at the theatre, like boredom for instance. The Shape of Things isn't boring, but it isn't misogynist either.

The play professes to be about how far art can go before it crosses a moral line, but there's a much simpler story in there too: a morality play about the perils of pre-marital sex. You see, beneath Labute's foul mouth beats the zealous heart of a convert to Mormonism. (The Latter Day Saints tried to kick him out a few years back, apparently because of the bad press he was getting them, but it seems they're stuck with him.)

Despite the nudity (at the Centaur!) and smutty language in his work, Labute's worldview is Mel Gibson-ishly conservative. People don't need any psychological reason to treat each other badly in his universe; they do so because they are innately evil. It's no mistake that the lead characters here are named Adam and Evelyn.

The four young actors - not young enough, in some cases, to play 22-ish characters - are okay, if you don't mind stereotypes. That's the way it is with morality plays: characters are not people but abstract ideas. At least they manage to milk a lot of laughs out of Labute's script.

Most of the pieces I read about this play were careful not to "spoil the ending," but in this production at least, you can see the ending coming from the beginning of the second act, maybe earlier.

But lots of brownie points to Gordon McCall for trying something controversial. From the looks of things at the Saturday matinée I attended, even his blue rinse subscribers are glad of a change.

Plays with promise

Next season's Centaur lineup is the best in years, beginning with the Canadian premiere of Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz. Centaur is working in association with National Theatre School and with Black Theatre Workshop on Tales From Ovid and Wade in the Water, respectively. Further cross-pollination with the Melbourne Theatre Company brings us Burnt Piano, by Autralian playwright Justin Fleming. The season is impressively rounded out by Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia, and Eugene O'Neill's classic Long Day's Journey Into Night. If you've been considering taking the plunge and subscribing to the Centaur, this is the year to do it.

Opening this week: following up its success last season with Les Feluettes, Espace GO is premiering Michel Marc Bouchard's latest, Le Peintre des Madones, with Serge Denoncourt once more in the director's seat. In this new play, set during the First World War, an Italian painter comes to a Quebec village to paint a fresco, and changes the lives of four local women, all named Marie. To May 1 at Espace GO (4890 St-Laurent), 845-4890.

The Shape of Things, to May 9
at Centaur (453 St-François-Xavier), 288-3161

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