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The Way We Get By: A Play
What they do have, however, is a very awkward encounter after spending one hot night together following a drunken wedding reception they attend. They wake up to a blurry morning where the rules of attraction, sex and society are waiting for them before their first cup of coffee, leading them to ponder how much they really know about each other and how much they really care about what other people think.Slyly profound and irresistibly passionate, The Way We Get By is Neil LaBute's audacious tale of a very modern romance―a sharp, sexy, fresh look at love and lust and the whole damn thing.
- GenresPlays
96 pages, Paperback
First published May 19, 2015
2 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Neil LaBute
83 books120 followersNeil LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.
In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he received an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. He taught drama and film at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a film director. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, and major awards and nominations at the Deauville Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.
LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. In the Company of Men portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and Ben Stiller, was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in orem, A gaggle of saints, and Medea redux) depicting essentially good Latter-day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by Calista Flockhart. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church.
LaBute's 2002 play The Mercy Seat was one of the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, the play was a commercial and critical success.
LaBute's latest film is The Wicker Man, an American version of a British cult classic. His first horror film, it starred Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and was released on September 1, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office.
He is working with producer Gail Mutrux on the screen adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.
In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he received an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. He taught drama and film at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a film director. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, and major awards and nominations at the Deauville Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.
LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. In the Company of Men portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and Ben Stiller, was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in orem, A gaggle of saints, and Medea redux) depicting essentially good Latter-day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by Calista Flockhart. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church.
LaBute's 2002 play The Mercy Seat was one of the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, the play was a commercial and critical success.
LaBute's latest film is The Wicker Man, an American version of a British cult classic. His first horror film, it starred Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and was released on September 1, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office.
He is working with producer Gail Mutrux on the screen adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 19, 2016
Unexpectedly cute fare from a playwright whose earlier, very cynical films In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things, have always stuck with me. There's a scene at the end of the Shape of Things where Paul Rudd's character ends up getting a nose job for this girl he's obsessed with and something about that nose job was like, the worst thing anyone could ever do to win favor of a member of the opposite sex, and I always appreciated that brutality. The Way We Get By caught my eye as I was checking in the book drop at the library and I wanted to see if it was indeed titled after the Spoon song (it was) and given LaBute's pedigree (and the fact that he's one of my alma mater's golden children) I read the play and hey! It's not cynical at all! It's a fun little conversation between a guy and a girl post one-night-stand with a deeper relationship than they are letting on, and once that mystery unravels the play morphs into a very sweet and hopeful love story. My quibble is that I wish the characters stood on equal ground. As it is, the guy gets all the big soliloquies and grand declarations and while the girl isn't quite two-dimensional, sometimes it feels like she's just an object for the dude to say big important things to. It feels a little bit more like his story when it should be their story. Still, it's a nice little bit of romantic comedy, and I'm sure the Broadway production (featuring Thomas Sadoski and Amanda Seyfried, both excellent, magnetic performers) is a little delight.
January 9, 2023
DOUG: Beth . . . this isn't a game here . . . okay?
BETH: I know that.
DOUG: I'm not a game player . . . I'm not one of those guys . . . /"Mr. Game Guy."
BETH: Nobody said that./I'm not saying that to you. That it's a game.
Awesome except that most of this sounded exactly like that - a game. And I'm too old for the games that were being played in this play.
Doug was the dud in this initially but ended up being the one with some substance to him and offered at least a couple profound things to say about relationships and people being judgmental. Beth was as dull as a dishrag; her most interesting moments were when she was contradicting herself, which wasn't really all that interesting come to think of it.
This was my first Neil LaBute play, so I'm not sure if this is typical LaBute. I really kind of hope not.
2 Stars
BETH: I know that.
DOUG: I'm not a game player . . . I'm not one of those guys . . . /"Mr. Game Guy."
BETH: Nobody said that./I'm not saying that to you. That it's a game.
Awesome except that most of this sounded exactly like that - a game. And I'm too old for the games that were being played in this play.
Doug was the dud in this initially but ended up being the one with some substance to him and offered at least a couple profound things to say about relationships and people being judgmental. Beth was as dull as a dishrag; her most interesting moments were when she was contradicting herself, which wasn't really all that interesting come to think of it.
This was my first Neil LaBute play, so I'm not sure if this is typical LaBute. I really kind of hope not.
2 Stars
May 17, 2022
Not finishing. At this point I feel like Neil's plays are created by a Labute generator.
January 26, 2017
LaBute seems to be on repeat mode lately - this is pretty much the same play as 'Some Velvet Morning' - two characters having a long, LONG early morning conversation until something 'shocking' is revealed. Unfortunately, that 'something' in this play is discussed at length in his introduction, so the play itself seemed a slow slog to get there after already knowing that. Also, a LOT of the dialogue sounds both contrived and expositional, both of which are pretty damaging.
March 15, 2024
It is much like any other Neil Labute play, natural dialogue between characters with the reader/audience waiting for the pay off. In what is the bizarre brother/sister moment from “In a Forest, Dark and Deep” expanded over 80 some pages minus the interesting murder reveal. This play is…irredeemable in both its pay off and its characters. It is readable but makes me see Labute as somewhat of a one trick pony. Long past are the days of “The Shape of Things” and this new interesting playwright. Maybe pick up a different play, or purchase tickets to a different production.
March 9, 2017
I love LaBute's dialogue and character exploration, but I hated the ending of this. It was way too tidy; inconsistent with LaBute's typical endings that I adore for their realistic brutality.
July 22, 2015
Loved it. For Mr. Labute's play, it is unusually adorable and happy one. Having said that, if you would like to experience usual Labute's spike on the same subject, please watch Billy & Billie, TV series which Mr. Labute wrote and directed. It is the best series of this year so far!
June 8, 2016
It was such a good read! I enjoyed this playwright's work and can't wait to read and see more of his work!
April 14, 2017
3.5/5. Witty and well crafted with solid dialogue, a great twisted romantic two-hander. To avoid spoilers save Labute's introduction until you have read the play in full (but I do recommend reading the introduction).
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews