In A Forest Dark and Deep review, The Vaudeville

I prefer my forests bright, thanks.

I have a problem with Neil LaBute: I either really like his plays or I really hate them.  In A Forest Dark and Deep leaves me in a quandry: I felt absolutely nothing.  This production is a fantastic vehicle for screen stars Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams.  They deal with a dense and emotive script, expertly. The problem is that they're huffing and puffing through a story that is utterly dependent on twists and turns for effect, and all the twists and turns are verbal rather than physical.  It could almost be radio.   

LaBute directs, and he's done it well - well, it's not that hard to direct a play that takes place in two rooms, one above the other, in a log cabin somewhere in a mid-western wood - especially as the action in his script is limited to moving while shouting, throwing books in boxes, and running up and down stairs. The exchanges die for lack of drama and a lack of oxygen and neither of the characters is empathetic: do we really care where all this is leading?  I wonder if the audience would have sat so politely through 100 minutes of hot air on a hot London night if the two people on stage were unknowns.

Conclusion: Tomorrow is the last performance, so you won't get a chance to call on this one unless you've already seen it, but if you want to see LaBute at his best, look out for a revival of In a Dark Dark House, which is utterly compelling and rewarding.

References

Neil LaBute, Wiki biog

Caroline McGinn in Time Out