Theatre
Review
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Fool for Love A desert-pink motel room and a rocking chair set the scene for Sam Shepard's claustrophobic and intense Fool for Love. Scraping Country and Western strings signal the beginning of the play and the motel room revolves to reveal May, denim-skirted and barefoot, sitting on the bed. A man, Eddie, enters. He is wearing a faded cowboy shirt and jeans. The action of the play takes place entirely in this room, and tells the story of Eddie and May's self-destructive relationship. It is supposed to be passionate, tragic, violent and bittersweet. Although touching on each of these, the English Touring Theatre's production was not played with enough conviction or emotional intensity to drive us through what should have been a relentless 70 minutes. Julie Graham as May led with her head and not her heart. Her face thrust forward with every accusation or attack she was too calculating; too self-conscious. At the beginning of the play she flings her arms around Eddie then slaps him to the ground. But her desperation exists only in Erica Whyman's direction, and not in her own characterisation of May. She has a self-confidence bred from an education and experience her character would not have, and with her shoulder length brown hair and Roedean posture she is more Islington mum than trailer-park white-trash. Joseph Bennett plays the cowboy Eddie with more honesty, and with a subtle ambiguity. Often needling and childlike, he provokes May's visitor, Martin. ("He's just a date," she pleads. "I'm gonna turn him into a fig," he replies.) He also displays the ability to be passionate and caring. He tries to be at home in the room, slumping on floors and beds, but he is always restless. His behaviour betrays an insecurity about his relationship with May. When he finally leaves it is out of self-hatred - he cannot bear to be seen through May's eyes. Erica Whyman has paced Fool for Love in small chunks rather than as a whole. Each episode leads to its own climax but there is little sense of escalating tension. The ending, which could be full of loss and desperation, is limpid. Perhaps this is intentional - the feeling we take from the theatre is that love can only ever fade away. Whyman also seems very proud of her revolving stage, using it at every possible opportunity. At first the technique is impressive - seeing the motel room both inside and out breaks down the fourth wall, and when the room shifts through thirty degrees the changed perspective is arresting and fresh. After more twists and turns however, and a complete spin of the room (which seems to have been used to avoid choreographing a fight scene), I am left wondering whether we are, in fact, not in Kansas any more. Ultimately Fool for Love
is disappointing. The excellent publicity campaign had prepared me for
something violent and explosive. The program promises 'terrifying physicality'.
I was expecting raw and aggressive urgency - a production not afraid
to accelerate into emotional overdrive. Fool for Love never quite got
out of second gear. |