The Lieder Theatre's Fool For Love: A powerful portrait of desire, love and loss.
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Full disclosure: I'm a Sam Shepard fan. The man is the embodiment of cool. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Academy Award nominated actor, Bob Dylan collaborator, long-term partner of Jessica Lange, snaggle-toothed cowboy, bespectacled intellectual. Enigmatic. Iconic. Just downright cool.
Fool For Love, which premiered in 1983, is one of the 58 plays Shepard wrote in a career spanning over 50 years. Almost 40 years after its original production, this epic tale of love, betrayal, obsession and abandonment maintains the power and brutality that characterise this playwright's body of work.
Transporting a Goulburn audience from a particularly bitter winter's eve to a sweltering hotel room on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert in south-eastern California is no mean feat. For the appreciative opening night audience of The Lieder Theatre's latest offering, this is exactly what the cast and crew of Fool For Love delivered.
Taking place in real time in a single location, the action of the play is deceptively simple. Two lovers, Eddie (Ryan Paranthoiene, who is also the play's director) and May (Courtney McKenzie), reunite in a low-budget motel room, and the secret of their relationship is revealed.
What makes this production so compelling is the tension between them that threatens to erupt at any moment, and frequently does. Eddie and May have a love-hate relationship. They ache for one another, but there's a gulf between them that cannot be bridged. Enter Martin (Josh Waters), the hapless handyman who has the misfortune of stumbling into this emotionally charged situation, innocently intending to take May on a date to the movies.
He presents a wholesome, if somewhat dull, alternative to the life of conflict, anguish and loss that lies ahead if May and Eddie are unable to break the ties that bind them. The whole debacle is watched over by The Old Man (Martin Sanders), a dream-like figure who exists only in the minds of Eddie and May.
Mr Paranthoiene has assembled a powerful cast. Alternatively tender and volatile, even menacing as he toys with poor Martin, Paranthoiene cuts an imposing figure as Eddie, every inch a cowboy down to his gaffer taped boots.
He has found his match in Courtney McKenzie, who effortlessly traverses the territory between passion, defiance, and vulnerability. Josh Waters beautifully evokes the visceral discomfort of Martin as he is forced to bear witness to the struggles of Eddie and May.
As The Old Man, Martin Sanders deftly conveys this chorus-like figure's journey from delusion to regret and a desperate need for redemption. A true ensemble, the cast relentlessly brings to life a vicious cycle of abuse, co-dependence and intergenerational conflict.
Although an overwhelming sense of inevitability and loss prevails, the play is not without its light-hearted moments. Mr Paranthoiene has expertly mined the script for welcome interludes of tension-breaking dark humour. Grim, grimy, and claustrophobic, Blake Selmes' set design evocatively elicits one of Shepard's key concerns - the decay of the American West.
Coupled with the moody sound and music of Gary Vehic and Steve Routley and the atmospheric lighting of Andrew Rayner and Julia Galiazzo, the production design succeeds in immersing the audience into the emotional world of the characters onstage.
With an interval-free running time of 75 minutes, Fool For Love will take you on a riveting, thought provoking journey and have you home in bed by 9pm - perfect timing for a cold winter's night.
Performances continue on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7.30pm until August 21, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday, August 14. For bookings, visit theliedertheatre.com. Dine and Discover vouchers accepted.
Fool For Love is a COVID-safe event. Masks must be worn at all times while in the theatre. Please use the hand sanitiser that is available throughout the venue. Please be mindful of physical distancing requirements and only sit in your allocated seats.
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