Fool for Love
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Cititour.com Review
Having seen “Heisenberg” at Manhattan Theatre Club’s miniscule Stage II this summer made me wish that this venerable company would have had the courage to put its revival of Sam Shepard OBIE-winning 1983 drama “Fool for Love” in the same space, since placing it in the relatively vast Samuel J. Friedman Theatre really does this already difficult work no favors.
Even though set-designer-of-the-moment Dane Laffey tries to shrink the stage by placing the work’s dingy motel room in a box that takes up only part of the space, the needed sense of claustrophobia and intensity is lost. We have to be “in” the room with quarreling lovers May (Nina Arianda) and Eddie (Sam Rockwell), no matter how uncomfortable that may be. Here, in Daniel Aukin’s somewhat misguided production (first done two years ago at the Williamstown Theatre Festival), we’re merely watching them from a safe distance.
The equally volatile May and Eddie,have been having an on-and-off, no good for either party “romance” since they met in high school 15 years ago, and their reasons for not being able to let go of each other, we eventually learn, go way deeper than mere lust or nostalgia. They are indeed two parts of the same soul, but happily-ever-after isn’t in the cards for them, something they’re both too keenly aware of – even if on this particular night, the just-returned Eddie, played with a discomfiting combination of charm, machismo, and violence by the wiry Rockwell, claims he isn’t quite ready to give May the ultimate heave-ho.
On the other hand, May appears to have given up the fight for good, even taking to try to date local nice guy Martin (a very fine if unrecognizable Tom Pelphrey). Still, May should be shattered by her final decision, and the near-Amazonian Arianda (returning to Broadway after a too-prolonged absence) simply exhibits too much strength – and not enough vulnerability – thereby lowering the stakes of this battle of the heart.
Ironically, neither May nor Eddie is really the loser, but rather the “Old Man” (a wily Gordon Joseph Weiss), a spectral observer who often feels more flesh and blood than anyone actually in the room, and who we eventually come to realize is the real fool for love in Shepard’s overheated landscape.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://foolforlovebroadway.com
Cast
Nina Arianda, Sam Rockwell, Tom Pelphrey, Gordon Joseph Weiss
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/8/2015
Closing 12/13/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 9/15/2015
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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