Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA
through August 2
by Jarice Hanson
When one thinks of love stories, one often thinks of the
giddiness of falling love, but in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love four characters
show us the painful side of obsession, compulsion, and the pain of love. The Williamstown Theatre Festival’s
production, brilliantly directed by Daniel Aukin currently on the Nikos Stage
is an immersive sensory experience in storytelling. From the moments the actors walk on stage to take their
places in full light, you realize this is going to be unique production of this
iconic one-act play. In the script, Shepard instructs actors to perform the
piece “relentlessly.”
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| Photo by T Charles Erickson |
As May, Nina Arianda radiates desire and vulnerability. Sam Rockwell as Eddie is threatening
and powerful. As “The Old Man”
Gordon Joseph Weiss makes up the trio of id, ego, and super-ego that define the
complex relationships that are enacted before Christopher Abbott—a regular guy
who show up to take May on a date, only to find that he (like the audience) is
the judge of the characters’ stories.
The ensemble is woven together seamlessly, but both Arianda and Weiss
have particularly effective moments that create magical realism that create a
special bond with the audience.
The action takes place in a sparsely furnished motel room in the Mohave
Desert, a metaphor for the west that once was, and a fitting location for lust,
impending violence, and struggle—whether real or imagined.
Sam Shepard’s plays are sometimes painful to watch, but few
authors reach into the depths of one’s soul with such beautifully crafted words
as he, and when a director understands the text, the performance can be
magical. In this 88 minute
roller-coaster of emotion, given emphasis by Ryan Rumery’s sound design, Fool
for Love becomes a haunting, memorable story of love in an impossible
situation. This production is a
masterful realization of one of Shepard’s most morally complex plays.
