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London Review
London ReviewFool For Love
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You are either going to erase me or have me erased.
---- May |
Juliette Lewis as May
(Photo: Hugo Glendinning) |
Rockstar-actor Juliette Lewis takes on the part of May, the strong yet desperate female lead. Addicted to her former lover Eddie (Martin Henderson) with a sort of destructive compulsion, the play centres upon her struggle to break free from his influence over her. Martin Henderson plays Eddie with a macho swagger, the lover who inspires such dependency yet continually abandons his conquests. True to the stereotype of the ambivalent man, Eddie pursues May only when there is a chance that she has escaped him. As a classic Shepard character, he is full of an attractive confidence and energy but also dangerous and unpredictable. Henderson captures this violent yet charismatic streak very well.
Joe Duttine plays Martin, the hapless, innocent bystander who gets caught up between the angry, jealous lovers. The only other onstage character is The Old Man (Larry Lamb) who adds a characteristically surreal touch. Sitting in a corner and drinking tequila from a battered, polystyrene cup, his grizzled eerie presence adds a mythic quality to this embroiled story of hopeless love.
Shepard's meticulous stage directions are followed expertly and with a real sense of atmosphere by designer Bunny Christie. The flashing motel sign is posted upon the curtain and descends at the beginning to reveal a scene of dilapidated squalor. The cheap motel room with encrusted dirt and decay is as bleak a setting as any tragedy but the red sunlight illuminates the windows' broken slatted blinds. A wedge of desert beneath the stage is just visible, as a tantalising glimpse of the wasteland surrounding these characters who are ultimately lost and alone. The door to the room bangs with a thunderous echo each time it shuts. This emphasises the frighteningly momentous and potentially final exit of Eddie, as well as the feebleness of the motel room as a sanctuary. At the precise moment when Eddie and May finally hug, one of Eddie's former lovers catches up with him and fires his trailer with an explosive crash. It is clear that their reunion is both cataclysmic and doomed.
Played through its eighty minutes, with no interval or scene breaks, this is an intense experience of an inevitably calamitous passion. It is always a joy to see Sam Shepard's plays reach the London stage and this production has an excellent design and competent cast. However, it is Sam Shepard's brilliant writing upon which this production's success really depends.
This play reviewed in New York
Fool for Love
Other Sam Shepard Play Reviews
True West
The Late Henry Moss
The Lie of the Mind (London)
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FOOL FOR LOVE
Written by Sam Shepard Directed by Lindsay Posner Starring: Juliette Lewis, Martin Henderson With: Larry Lamb, Joe Duttine Design: Bunny Christie Lighting: Mark Henderson Sound: FergusO'Hare Running time: One hour twenty minutes with no interval Box Office: 0870 890 1101 Booking at the Apollo Theatre to 9th September 2006 Reviewed by Charlotte Loveridge based on 20th June performance at the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1 (Tube: Piccadilly Circus) |
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