Summary Of The Shape Of Things By Neil Labute

The Shape of Things by Neil Labute follows the story of a student working on their final Thesis to finish their MFA in Art. Her medium is a guy named Adam. They start dating and she uses passive manipulation to mold him into what society would see as an “improved” version of himself. Ultimately, asking him to give up his only friends, and displaying her piece of art to the world while simultaneously turning down his offer at marriage. Adam’s super objective is to love and feel loved so that he could be happy. This objective aligns with pretty much every choice he makes. First by asking Evelyn out, then by doing so much for her just to make her happy, and then finally by asking her to marry him. It’s all in a vain attempt to love and feel loved. Of course, his main goal with his actions are to make her happy, but I believe that’s because in his eyes her happiness is his happiness. Evelyn’s super objective is to make great art to get a good grade. I think she does a good enough job explaining this herself, but here it goes. Her professor told her to “Strive to make art, but change the world” (75). She took this to a new extreme and decided that the best way to fulfill her professor’s wishes would be to change someone’s entire life. In order to change how the world saw them, and in order to change how they saw themselves. In the admits that there
Throughout the show I would slowly change my physicality starting from an awkward and low stance centered in my head most likely until ending in a much more powerful and confident stance centered in my chest. Though, I would likely change it a third time into a defeated and/or confused stance for the ending. My vocal quality would likely change from timid to confident to lost in the same pattern as my physical qualities