This Is How It Goes at Aurora Theatre Company

Authors

• Neil LaBute

Belinda and Cody Phipps appear to be a typical Midwestern couple. Typical except that Cody is in almost every respect an outsider - a successful businessman and one of the few black faces in a small white town. When a white, male high school acquaintance returns to town and rents the room over their garage, the fragile balance of Belinda and Cody's relationship is upset, raising questions about who they want to be, who they are, and what made them that way. As a battle for Belinda's affections is waged, Belinda and Cody frankly question the foundation of their initial attraction, opening the door wide to a swath of bigotry and betrayal. THIS IS HOW IT GOES, called "smart and stylish" by New York Magazine when it premiered at The Public Theater in 2005, challenges notions of gender, ethnicity, and even love itself, exploring the myriad ways in which the wild card of race is played by both black and white America.