When the players themselves are conceived this superficially, LaBute winds up invalidating his own point.

The actors all benefit from intimate knowledge of difficult parts, and barbs at modern art and sexual mores do cut through.

There are barbs here to tickle anyone's paranoia, but the callousness isn't illustrative, just exploitative.

The Shape of Things thus suits LaBute's objectives and the temper of our times beautifully even while it contains an uncharacteristically obvious and reactionary notion at its core.