A. The play text, context, and the ideas presented in the entire play
Cultural context
Neil LaBute is an accomplished American playwright, director, screenwriter that is known for his controversial works that usually addressed the controversial topics of society that is rarely talked about through the use of multiple social themes. Brought up in a difficult familial environment during the revolutionary 1960s in America, many cultural factors play a part in influencing LaBute’s works.
During this time, America was undergoing massive change, mostly negative. The beloved John F. Kennedy who had the nation in behind his back in hopes of bring it into a new light was abruptly assassinated in 1964. Racial, gender injustice and poverty ran rampant through the country. These topics all influenced LaBute’s works and are all frequently touched upon throughout the pessimistic, fast paced dialogues of LaBute’s scripts. He exposed many of these problems through the everyday dialogue of small talk and conversations about nothing, but at the same time outlining these problems by showing how people really talked. This caused many to label him as misogynistic. For example on the topic of of sexism and gender, LaBute was able to recreate the oppressed nature of women of his time in the play “Merge”. When the woman in the script was asked by the man if she was raped, she gave extremely unclear and vague answers and repeatedly avoided many of the man’s inquires. This dark dialogue shows the audience just how oppressed women were, how many were treated at that time as well as the submissive nature that they were forced into, as LaBute paints a male dominating society, which was a very big problem in the 1960s.
Theoretical context
Born in Detroit on March 19, 1963, Neil Labute was raised in a difficult family. His mother a receptionist and his father a truck driver (this which might have influenced the vehicle themes in Autobahn). His works reflected his abusive past, having a absent but violent and unpredictable when present father that would sometimes inflict physical abuse on him, his siblings, and even his mother. This sort of father figure can be seen throughout Autobahn, reflected in the submissive nature of the mother towards the absent father in the play “Funny”, or the accused abusive parents in “Autobahn”. Through this upbringing, he was taught to observe the world around him in a pessimistic way at a very young age. This causes a feeling of isolation that is evident in the works of Autobahn, as many of the dialogue tend to be one sided streams of consciousness. His childhood is shown through how Neil LaBute tends to expose and explore the dirty side of humanity in the American society in his plays. On one of his plays he was quoted saying that it, “touches on, not necessarily my own life, but the people I grew up around (Neil LaBute).” To Neil LaBute, there is no American dream. He dissolves that myth with skepticism, and find the ugly in everything, and often raises moral questions for the audience instead of giving answers through his plays. He was once quoted, “everyone has the ability to be manipulative, to be hateful and deceitful (Neil Labute).” His pessimistic views on humanity is very present in his aesthetic.
After high school, he proceeded to study at Brigham Young University, a conservative religious university as a non religious student studying theater. There, he began to develop his works that were deemed too dark by his peers and the school, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable to be shown in a religious university. He joined the Mormon religion while attending BYU, attempting a lifestyle that was almost polar opposites with his upbringing. Unfortunately he formally left the church after his work “Bash: Latter Day Plays” was published. The play depicts good hearted Mormons doing extremely violent and disturbing things, and was extremely controversial when it came out.
LaBute left BYU and completed his formal education in Kansas University and NYU, where he graduated. Afterwards, he worked as a security guard and in a psychiatric hospital. During this time he carried on writing and developing his plays. He began to get into the film industry, where his dark, taboo addressing topics carried on in his screenwriting.
Notable influences of LaBute’s work consists of individuals such as David Mamet and Harold Pinter. David Mamet is a playwright, director, screenwriter with accolades such as the Pulitzer Prize under his belt. Mamet played the biggest influence on him, as LaBute once addressed Mamet stating that he was, “beyond fan –stalker perhaps. Psychological stalker.” Mamet’s style of dialogue is frequently replicated and is known as “Mamet Speak”. Mamet Speak is fast paced, filled with explicit words and jargon. This is evident in the LaBute’s work, and is all throughout the Autobahn play. Harold Pinter was a political activist and writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003.
Ideas presented in play
Neil LaBute uses a variety of themes relevant to his past culture, people and surroundings to address controversial social topics that are rarely discussed, often being politically incorrect in his dialogue as a way to emphasize on the realism of it to raise questions of society for the audience to think about in Autobahn. Below is a chart of themes and ideas presented in the play, and justification for it. The themes are all interconnected with each other.
Theme
Justification
Isolation
The settings of all of the vignettes presented in Autobahn are all in the confinements of the car. This creates an overall isolation effect on the outside environment and draws you into the dialogue that serves as the performance. Characters are also isolated from each other in vignettes where conversations are one sided or when they go onto a lengthy stream of consciousness, as this causes to have all the attention draws to them.
Relationship
In Autobahn, the relationship between characters are dynamic and evolves with the conversation that takes place. LaBute is able to address social issues and present his pessimistic views through the evolution of his character’s relationships within the car. This ever changing relationship is influenced by the other themes of Autobahn, such as emotion, isolation and power.
Emotion
Emotion is used throughout Autobahn to put emphasis into the characters. Emotion amplifies and brings out more of the character’s feelings that words are unable to do, as well as adding a human and real feel to the dialogue. LaBute is able to dramatize a scene through the use of emotion, as not much physical action is able to be performed in the confinements of a vehicle.
Power
In the several vignettes that make up Autobahn, characters are constantly engaged in a power play that evolves the relationship, some more subtle than others. Levels of power and dominance is highlighted through the dialogue, with the character’s personality, emotion all being factors in assertion of the dominant figure in the conversation. LaBute is able to play on power to create isolation between characters.
Repetition
Repetition was used frequently in the Autobahn vignettes. This use of repetition is able to allow the audience to gain an easier interpretation, or further understanding of the dialogue and the message was being conveyed.