The Ugly One
Opening Night: February 7, 2012
Closing: February 26, 2012
Theater: Soho Repertory
This whip smart social satire from one of Germany’s most exciting playwrights explores contemporary capitalist society with daring theatricality.
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February 7, 2012
The familiar bromide that looks aren’t everything is eviscerated with blunt brevity in “The Ugly One,” a black comedy by the German playwright Marius von Mayenburg that is making its New York premiere at Soho Rep. The unprepossessing fellow referred to in the title, an engineer who invents plugs for a living, gradually loses both his sense of self and maybe his soul when a miracle of plastic surgery turns him into a nouveau Apollo.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 8, 2012
Beauty is skin deep and so are the conceits in this high concept, low content comedy. The play by Marius von Mayenburg sounds very Neil LaBute-like in description. Lette, the valued engineer of a brand new 2CK electrical plug, is dismayed to find out he won’t be presenting the product at a convention. Instead, it will be his assistant, a gloried coffee getter who doesn’t even have a degree. Both the assistant and Lette’s boss are confused by his reaction. Surely Lette understands why he couldn’t possibly be the face of this important new product? Surely he knows? Knows what? That he is exceptionally… ugly.
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February 9, 2012
Alfredo Narciso, who plays Lette in The Ugly One, is a handsome man. Yet not according to the characters who share the Soho Rep stage with him in Marius von Mayenburg’s barbed satire. “We can’t stand the sight of you,” his boss (Andrew Garman) confesses. Even his loving wife (Lisa Joyce) tells him, “You’re a very beautiful human being—but I’m afraid your face is very, very ugly.”
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 7, 2012
German playwright Marius von Mayenburg’s 2007 play "The Ugly One" comes to New York courtesy of Soho Rep and the Play Company after having enjoyed nearly 100 productions around the world, including two at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Well, to coin a phrase, better late than never. In Maja Zade’s tight translation, this sharp satire on the nature of identity and the inescapable human bent for conformity is a wicked piece of japery that elegantly makes its points in one breezy hour.
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February 8, 2012
Marius von Mayenburg’s The Ugly One, running at Soho Rep in a co-production with the Play Company, may be the breeziest yet most densely packed 60 minutes of theater audiences will have the chance to savor this season. While the work often proves hilarious, before the piece has reached its überly ironic conclusion, it also provides an incisive look at conformity and the way in which society champions homogeneity.
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