There is one main character, an ageing New York art dealer who used to be a working cowboy in his younger days in the West. He feels the need for a horseback trip on his old ranges to rejuvenate his spirit, but soon after starting, his horse dies in the middle of the desert. The play opens as he finishes digging a hole to bury the horse and starts tackling the problem of getting it into the hole.

Through his thinking out loud, the difficulties he faces in putting the horse into the hole – and later, simply surviving in the wild without transport – symbolize how his age has worn him down. The connection with the way America has matured while still behaving like a young brash man is clear, without being preachy.

America’s search for a return to its nostalgic Old West past is personified in the character’s obsession with ‘authenticity’. In doing so, director Sam Shepard manages to capture the irony of a nation built on change and novelty which insists on recreating an idyllic past. As he tries to bury the horse, one keeps getting the feeling that the horse won’t be alone in the grave.

Stephen Rea excels, transforming himself into a swaggering wide-open-spaces American, with the right blend of humour and melancholy. The only other brief part is that of a young mute woman who emerges from the grave at a crucial stage near the end. Her sense of wonder is well-conveyed by Joanne Crawford. The horse’s grave is a real hole on stage – and the echo it can produce is used to good effect by Stephen Rea.

Cast Credits: Stephen Rea - Hobart Struther. Joanne Crawford - Young Woman.

Company Credits: Director – Sam Shepard. Writer – Sam Shepard. Set Design – Brien Vahey. Lighting Design – John Comiskey. Costume Design – Joan Bergin. Voice Director – Andrea Ainsworth. Dialect Coach – Brendan Gunn. Assistant Director – Wayne Jordan. Company Stage Manager – Brendan McLoughlin. Deputy Stage Manager – Elisabeth Gerhardy. Assistant Stage Manager – Roisin Coyle. Hair and Make-up – Patsy Giles. Photography – Ros Kavanagh. Graphic Design – Red Dog. Horse Makers: Designer/Project Manager – Clyde Doyle. Sculptors – Padraig McGoran, John O’Connor. Mechanism – Shadow Creations. Assistants – Tony Doody, Rory Doyle. Model maker – Mike McDuff. Producer – Abbey Theatre.

END

(c) Colman Higgins 2007

reviewed Dublin 29 March 2007 / Peacock at Abbey Theatre

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com