Mo goes to Brooklyn College - A New Web Series

The Brooklyn College TV Club presents: Mo goes to Brooklyn College - a new web series.

Written and directed by Johanna Schoenfeld.

Director of Photography: Floyd Rock.

Starring Linda Elizabeth Freund, Massiel Hernandez, Mary Ann Walsh and Kevin Kennison.

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“Reasons to be Pretty”: Funny and enjoyable, but characters ultimately fall flat

By Johanna Schoenfeld

“Reasons to be Pretty” by Neil LaBute celebrated its Brooklyn College premiere last Thursday in the New Workshop Theater in front of a full house. Directed by MFA Directing student Adrian Wattenmaker and cast exclusively with Brooklyn College acting students, the 2008 play follows Greg (Django Palty), his girlfriend Steph (Ana Bell) and their married friends Kent (Emmanuel Elpenord) and Carly (Eunjung Lee).

We open on a vicious fight between Greg and Steph in their bedroom about a remark Greg supposedly made at a party. Steph finally pries out of him that during a conversation with Kent about a new female co-worker, he called Steph's face “regular.” This is an insult she just can't get over and leads to a rift in their relationship. Kent, meanwhile, although being a perfectly happy husband on the surface, cannot get the hot new co-worker off his mind. Over several scenes in five different locations, we get to witness witty and oftentimes hilarious conversations not only about these characters' relationships, but, in a way, about the relationships between men and women in general. We might recognize ourselves in these people; and realize that you have to face the bitter truth that sometimes, it just doesn't work out for one reason or another.

Django Palty as Greg carries the play. He is clearly the protagonist here, and we see this world through his eyes. Palty displays a remarkable sense for comedic as well as dramatic timing; his facial expressions alone made the audience erupt in laughter at times, and we felt with him through every dramatic beat.

This very strong protagonist, however, might also be the play's fatal flaw. He is an ordinary but very nice and funny guy. His dialogue is realistic and comes from the heart. Unfortunately (and I believe this to be largely due to the writing, not the actors' performances), he is the only one. All the characters around him seem like caricatures, over-the-top archetypes. This is just exacerbated by Greg's sardonic comments about them throughout the dialogue, while everyone else plays it completely straight. It's like the playwright is talking to us, saying, “look at these ridiculous people.” While this is very amusing, it prevents the audience from ever identifying with them or seeing them as real people.

The most prominent example is Greg's girlfriend Steph. From the very first scene, in which she's shrilly yelling at Greg for calling her face regular, adding that he wouldn't trade her for anything, for what feels like hours and even considers ending a four-year relationship because of it, she comes off as a hysterical bitch. At the very end, we learn that they had other, underlying problems, but this is revealed much too late to not make Steph look insane throughout almost the entire play. I literally cringed at some of the dialogue in the opening sequence, so obvious was it that this woman's dialogue was written by a man with a nagging ex-girlfriend who wanted to make himself look good in his alter ego Greg. While actress Ana Bell could have played the scene more subtly and with some sorely missed sadness or hurt, I mostly blame LaBute's writing once again.

Because of the cardboard cutout quality of all the supporting roles and the near-perfection (if in an adorable, scatterbrained way) of Greg, no chemistry ever develops between any of them, leaving us without emotional attachment. Maybe even more unfortunate is that the theme of the play – people's obsession with superficialities – was not dramatized in the complex way it deserves to be and therefore never fully flourishes. Instead, we just laugh at Steph's getting bogged down on a trivial comment.

The actors' performances, the interesting music choices and the realistic set design as well as an abundance of funny one-liners from Greg make the evening well worth the while. At the end, these enjoyable elements just don't add up to much.