THINGS GET UGLY

Staged Reading and Discussion

By Doug Brendel Directed by Lydia Charlotte Brendel

Two beautiful actors — newly married and starring together in the same show — prepare backstage before curtain. As makeup and costuming transform one into a grotesque stage character, the other begins to reveal an ugliness that runs deeper than appearances. Their banter, sparkling with Noel Coward–style wit, is as funny as it is uncomfortable, peeling back layers of charm to expose long-buried truths about their relationship.

Add the looming arrival of an old lover, now a theatre critic, and a devastating secret that could unravel their future together — and suddenly the dressing room becomes a crucible for trust, love, and survival.

Playful in form and daring in content, Things Get Ugly explores marriage, performance, and the roles we play onstage and off. With both parts open to any gender — and the possibility of actors swapping roles from performance to performance — this modern chamber piece offers audiences humor, tension, and a bracing look at beauty, betrayal, and the bargains we make to stay together.

THIS READING IS PART OF THE RING-WORKS NEW PLAY LAB, A PROGRAM AIMED AT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PLAYS AND EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS.