Fool for Love
Shepard begins the script with a terse directive: “This play is to be performed relentlessly, without a break.” In the original 1984 New York production, the cast obeyed to a fault–but then, Shepard directed. Attempting to prove just how tortured they were, May and Eddie, the pair of self-destructive lovers who give the play its title, spent most of their hour onstage literally flinging themselves against the walls of Shepard’s sleazy southwest motel. That production dramatically demonstrated just how durable a set can be, but it had little to say about love and obsession. Relentless, yes–relentlessly tedious.
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Perhaps scenic designer Joey Wade saw that production, because he’s blown the motel walls right out of the theater, leaving only two enormous hunks of concrete into which doors have been set. Two massive wooden ceiling beams jut from the wreckage, colliding precariously above center stage. This room seems on the brink of collapse, echoing the emotional state of the lovers, who’ve spent two decades tearing themselves and each other to shreds.
Eddie: I missed you…Kept seeing you. Sometimes just a part of you.
May: You missed my neck?
