the shape of things

Imperial House’s debut production is Neil Labute’s glittering and searing play The Shape of Things, a witty and intelligent investigation into the role of art, love and influence that permeates through art since the myth of Pygmalion. Focussing on the lives of four U.S. college kids, the play examines the role of love in the shaping of their understanding of the world, and the damaging potential of influence and glamour at such a suggestible period in life. It narrates the falling in love between the geeky Adam and the sexy, enigmatic Evelyn and the development of their relationship over the course of a College semester. In counterpoint to this is the relationship between Phil, Adam’s best friend and college jock, and his fiancée, Jenny. Over the course of the play the loves and lives of these characters entwine and dramatically realign the parameters of these relationships, testing the very emotions on which they are founded.