FOOL FOR LOVE
at A Red Orchid Theatre
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This play is vintage Shepard, turning the myths of Marlboro men and coyote country inside out, revising a standard country-and-western tune like “Stand by Your Man” until it becomes “Lie by Your Half Brother.” Down-on-his-luck cowboy Eddie tracks down his old flame and half-sister May at a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert, where he reignites their forbidden passions and mutual hatred and terrorizes May’s new nebbish of a boyfriend, Martin. The knock-down, drag-out reunion is observed by an Old Man, the spirit of the father who sired them both, who tries to reinvent his past so he won’t have to bear any responsibility for their tragic and incestuous union.
What saves Shepard from himself, and what causes his works to be performed so damn many times, is the brilliant acting potential provided by his scripts, with their razor-sharp dialogue, idiosyncratic characters, and furious physical interaction. Take Dado’s multifaceted rendition of May in Mary-Arrchie’s production of Fool for Love under the direction of James Schneider. Combining perfect amounts of sizzling hostility and desperate surrender, she embodies everything a Shepard production can be.
The trouble with Square One is that its author, Steve Tesich, seems to have only the vaguest understanding of the society and characters he’s created. His well-paced, witty dialogue is diverting but never gripping, because he hasn’t bothered to lay the appropriate dramatic groundwork.
