COWBOY MOUTH. AT THEATRE XII. (5 WEST 30Th ST.)
Finally it looks as though New York has recognized Sam Shepard for who he is: the most important American playwright of his generation. In spite of international acclaim and critical recognition for his ability to encompass large issues of myth and identity, and to do so with the originality of a true visionary, this city has too often played the laggard in presenting his work and, once presented, in supporting it. This sad situation should be changing with the favor shown Buried Child and, more recently, Seduced.
Of an importance equal to the new successes is the renewed attention which smaller theatres are devoting to his earlier works. There are two significant developments in this regard: Theatre artists, especially younger ones, are stretching themselves beyond the confines of traditional American realistic drama by attempting to meet Shepard's special, highly stylized and poetic demands. Furthermore, artists are searching out other American writers whose creative horizons are similarly broad and challenging. The Shepard/
Cowboy Mouth is a crossroad of dynamic encounters. To write it, Shepard -- the poet/
These roles were surely galvanized by the in-person charisma of their creators, but their actual presence is not necessary for the encounter of the stage characters to vibrate with meaning. What gives the play its mysterious resonance and sense of deeper significance is the way that contemporary imagery has been connected with ancient myth. Cavale is shadowed by the raven (she wears ragged black and mothers a stuffed crow); Slim, by the coyote (he wears red and breaks into howls). These are the great tricksters of American Indian lore: demigods embodying at once the most foolish, lecherous, dishonest and disorderly creatures of humanity while also being its teachers and civilizers. Combined together, Cavale and Slim become the archetypical artist, living on the extreme edge of society but transmitting back to it its own meaning and myth. The language for this transmission is incantatory: rock and roll, rich and raucous.
What these two search for among the shards of pop culture clogging their room and their minds is a new myth, born of all the dreams and litter to bring wholeness and meaning to the world. What Shepard/
Where the Theatre XII production, under the direction of Mentha Marley III, succeeds is in making the relationship between the spaced-
Copyright © James Leverett 1979
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