ANew York Times critic once called Neil LaBute “The bleakest and most unforgiving moralist in contemporary American film and theater.” He has directed several films from his own scripts, including his infamously dark breakout success In the Company of Men, as well as movies by other writers — Nurse Betty starring Renee Zellweger, and Possession with Gwyneth Paltrow. LaBute’s plays include This Is How It Goes, Fat Pig, Mercy Seat, and bash: latterday plays, about a group of Mormons. Labute recently left the Church of Latter-day Saints, of which he had been a member since 1981.