Abbey Theatre, Sam Shepard, Stephen Rea
In Ireland, Theatre on November 15, 2009 at 10:26 pm
In Sam Shepard’s ‘Ages of the Moon’, not a lot happens. Two men drink, sitting on a porch. Nobody else comes along. One of them leaves, briefly. Most of what they talk about is objectively meaningless: rambling musings on life, alcohol, women; shared memories of past misadventures. A fan hums above them erratically, till one of them shoots it. They have a fight. One of them is hurt. It seems bad. They watch the moon.
The play is softly melancholic, with a streak of bleakness and despair, and a countervailing seam of hope and humanity. It is a gentle entertainment, in which the meandering earlier scenes, which are dominated by a sometimes-awkward burlesque comedy, lead to the payoff of a closing sequence of simple, stark beauty and emotional clarity.
The action, such as it is, takes place across a long day’s drinking Read the rest of this entry »
Beckett, Sam Shepard, The Abbey
In Theatre on March 18, 2009 at 12:23 pm
In Sam Shepard’s ‘Ages of the Moon’, not a lot happens. Two men drink, sitting on a porch. Nobody else comes along. One of them leaves, briefly. Most of what they talk about is objectively meaningless: rambling musings on life, alcohol, women; shared memories of past misadventures. A fan hums above them erratically, till one of them shoots it. They have a fight. One of them is hurt. It seems bad. They watch the moon.
The play is softly melancholic, with a streak of bleakness and despair, and a countervailing seam of hope and humanity. Read the rest of this entry »
Sam Shepard, Stephen Rea, The Abbey, Theatre
In Theatre on August 6, 2008 at 7:48 am
Published in the Irish Independent, March 2007
The US is kicking a dead horse in Iraq, the outcome of a misconceived adventure that was supposed to be about taming the wild. Their only hope for retaining some dignity is to bury the bodies and get out as quickly as possible. This could be what the renowned American playwright, Sam Shepard, is talking about in his enigmatic new play, written for the Abbey, ‘Kicking A Dead Horse’.
Read the rest of this entry »
