Review: FOOL FOR LOVE, Found 111, 31 October 2016

In Room 111 (natch) of a grim and grimy motel half-buried in the dustbowl of America's deep south, May sits alone, on edge, waiting and watching. Eddie bursts in and we witness a relationship that seems to be working backwards, the love now gone with just the lust to keep them together. Meanwhile, a shadowy cowboy lurks in our presence (and the lovers' imagination), commenting on Eddie and May, a father figure - perhaps a father - to both. Stories are told; May's new man, not so bright, but well-meaning, turns up and is teased by Eddie; a gun, a knife and spiky spurs loom right in front of our eyes; violence hangs in the air, shimmering like a heat haze.

But not much actually happens. This is Sam Shepard exploring the dysfunctional lives at the margins of the ex-Wild West, lives that have become overly-familiar in the 33 years since the play premiered via The Jerry Springer Show and countless other "nuts and sluts" TV filler. I half expected someone to turn up and slam the door (doors get a damn good slamming quite often) brandishing the results of a DNA test. Not this time though - this is award-winning serious stuff that has SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT AMERICA.

And it's often said well. Though Joe McGann looks more like the father of Las Vegas's famous Fremont Street cowboy than either May or Eddie, his slow movement and wistful reflections exhibit some plaintive regret before he demands that his side of the story be put - it isn't. Luke Neal is good too as dumb ol' Martin, whom May uses to stave off the boredom, without ever suggesting that she gives him more than a peck on the cheek in return.

Ripper Street alumni, Lydia Wilson and Adam Rothenburg, don't entirely convince as the on-off lovers. Though there's plenty of desperate embracing and a passionate kiss or two, they've risked everything for each other, can't live together, but can't live apart, and have paid a terrible price for their forbidden attraction - yet the pair never really live up to the emotions that May's flaming dress suggest.

She doesn't know what she wants and spends far more time looking at him with disgust in her eyes rather than desire (we're so close, we can see everything). He probably wants her, but has The Countess (another lover) pursuing him and an occasional gig as a stuntman with a farm in Wyoming as a plan - so, despite the 2400 mile drive to hook up with May again, I never believed that he was in the market for anything beyond an opportunistic sympathy screw with his ex when she's down.

There's some atmospheric lighting by Elliot Griggs, and impressive use of sound - critical in this tiny venue - from director Simon Evans and the whole thing is done in bum-friendly 70 minutes. But (whisper it, with all that star power and pedigree in the cast and creatives) it's just a bit lukewarm, more Northallerton than Nevada.

Fool For Love continues at Found 111 until 17 December.

Photo - Marc Brenner.

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