The script of Sam Shepard’s romantic drama Fool For Love begins with the stage direction, “This play is be performed relentlessly, without a break.” The superb actors at Steppenwolf Theatre must’ve circled that sentence, because the energy they bring to this revival, directed by Jeremy Herrin, starts at level nine and then wavers between eight and eleven for the night. Theater delivered “relentlessly” can exhaust an audience, but I was riveted moment-to-moment by the confident performances and impressed constantly by the show’s production values.
For a little more than an hour the audience is a fly (or a cockroach) on the wall of the sweatiest Mojave Desert motel room ever put on stage. The room’s occupant May (Caroline Neff) is visited by her old lover Eddie (Nick Gehlfuss) who promises after a prolonged absence to settle down and build a life with her. But May has heard these promises before. The more she pushes him away, the more Eddie, spurred on by desperation and tequila, insists their fate is intertwined by a dark secret represented in the ghostly specter of The Old Man (Tim Hopper). The show is a word battle between two people who understand their opponent well enough to hit em’ where it hurts; in other words it’s catnip for fans of melodrama.
Before the action begins one is captivated by the brilliant, highly detailed set. When so many productions try for minimalism, it’s refreshing to see a small show go big on set design. Todd Rosenthal, scenic designer, builds a veraciously gross cheap motel by leveraging clever details like absent Styrofoam ceiling tiles, water-damage stains, and faded wood paneling around the light switch. These dingy details plant the viewer in the setting—we can smell the cigarette smoke, feel the dry heat. And everything onstage feels much more plausible.
The performances are astonishing. Gehlfuss uses his body like a ragdoll, rolling on the bed, thrashing and undulating wild man frustration at the woman who seems, after many years, immune to his charms. He brings a playfulness to the character, but also a threatening attitude; we feel at any moment his loose limbs could turn on the other characters. Anyone who’s been around drunk bullies can see the obvious markers in this well-observed performance.
Neff as May imbues the character with an oddly appropriate combination of feral frustration and even-headed coolness. She jumps between the two, oscillating emotionally with a show whose intensity is relentless but varied. The smarter of our leads, May gets the best lines. We believe her when she tells Eddie, “I can smell your thoughts before even think em’.” Her quiet resentment hits home when she describes Eddie’s infidelities, “All I see is a picture of you. You and her. I don’t even know if the picture’s real any more. I don’t even care. It’s a made-up picture. It invades my head.” Neff’s only blunder is her habit for gripping furniture. It’s an old actor’s slipup, but very fixable.
The evening’s surprise comes with Cliff Chamberlain as May’s new man Martin. Audiences these days seem a little too ready to laugh, and more than once that night I heard laughter when gasps, or even plain silence, would have been more appropriate. Chamberlain, however, earns every laugh as a well-meaning but dim landscaper who stumbles into a drama far more extreme than he can handle. His monosyllabic lines—“Oh” and “Sure”—are a welcome change from the relentless monologuing experienced throughout the show. He truly is a comic relief.
Director Jeremy Herrin and his team do a wonderful job translating Shepard’s work. Scenic designer Todd Rosenthal gives us not just the finely detailed motel interior, but also the exterior's desert plants, a motel sign, and even a pool ladder. The presentation expands the vision without distracting from the core.
Similarly Heather Gilbert, lighting design, and Mikhail Fiksel, sound design and original music, follow the script’s instructions expertly. The thunderous door slams—Shepard is very specific that each slam of the door “booms”—contribute to the play’s heightened, surreal quality.
Sam Shepard is not a playwright one takes on lightly. One should always be intimidated when working with material so respected and popular. Steppenwolf assigned themselves a production for which we have every reason to expect big things. And they totally pulled it off.
Fool For Love by Steppenwolf Theater Company continues at Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N Halsted St, thru Sunday, March 23. Running time is 65 minutes with no intermission. Ticket prices are $20-$138.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.
Support arts and culture journalism today. This work doesn't happen without your support. Contribute today and ensure we can continue to share the latest reviews, essays, and previews of the most anticipated arts and culture events across the city.