Fool for Love

Written by Sam Shepard

Directed by Katherine Krause

The Living Theatre

21 Clinton Street

972-743-3746

 

Review by Laura Oseland

 

We Both Go Down Together: Kevin Shaffer and Katie Bender in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love.

 

The Bull’s pulp revival of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love is at once brutal, hilarious and irresistibly sexy. A voyeuristic snapshot of the prototypical sexually charged young couple at their most violent, scheming and melodramatic, Fool for Love reminds us that no one is exempt from the magnetic pull of a tumultuous relationship fueled by mutual sexual obsession.

 

Eddie (Kevin Shaffer), a brooding, dominant and achingly masculine young man with a penchant for accentuating his crude speeches with possessive kisses, and May (Katie Bender), an unconventionally sexy country girl whose bite is worse than her bark, meet in a seedy hotel room in the barren dystopia of the Deep South. In the midst of their knockdown, drag-out fight — which is interrupted by several bouts of hypersexual power struggles — their lurid past is revealed. Their shared history, which dates back to their childhood, involves murder, incest and the kind of obsessive, all-consuming love and sexual desire that they display in their never-ending cycles of lovemaking, fist fighting, and verbal sparring. Moreover, several pervasive and troubling figures threaten their violent version of “happiness,” including an old man (Bill Weeden) who provides a unique perspective on the action; Eddie’s alleged (but never seen) wealthy mistress, the Countess; and May’s unsuspecting and endlessly forgiving date, Martin (Jonathan Wilde). While their Southern accents are inconsistent, Shaffer and Bender’s chemistry is palpable, and their familiar but tightly coiled physicality evokes a sense of sexual prowess, danger and anticipation that explodes in the final jarring scene.

 

The Bull’s “pulp revival” is reminiscent of a shamelessly sensationalistic classic Western, with all the scandal, violence and gender stereotyping that suggests. This youthful, sexy interpretation of an already emotionally charged text is brilliantly directed by Katherine Krause, whose careful hand gives the erotic fight scenes (choreographed by Dan Zisson) their weight and purpose, juxtaposed with the provocative stillness of the more dialogue-driven scenes.

 

Also notable is the scenic design and artistry of William George McGarvey and Jack O. Richards; the gritty reality of the couple’s shabby hotel room is neatly juxtaposed with the more ethereal, haunting and moonlit realm of the old man.

 

Fool for Love is, quite simply, a temptation. Seduction, secrets and unabashed eroticism give the play its unmistakable flair, while its heavier themes and raw emotion imbue those seemingly superficial seductions with deeper meaning and a sense of bittersweet loss.