FOOL FOR LOVE

by Shepard, Sam

In a stark motel room on the edge of the Mojave Desert, May, a dishevelled young woman sits dejectedly on a rumpled bed while Eddie, a rough-spoken rodeo performer crouches in a corner fiddling with his riding gear. When he attempts to console May, who is distressed by Eddie’s frequent absences and affairs, she seems at first to soften but then suddenly attacks him. As the recriminations pour out, the desperate nature of their relationship becomes apparent - they cannot get along with or without one another, yet neither can subdue their burning passion. The poignancy of their situation (they are half-brother and half-sister as well as lovers) is pointed up by the play’s two other characters: a hapless young man who stops by to take May to the movies and becomes the butt of Eddie’s funniest yet most humiliating jokes; and a ghostly old man (perhaps their father) who sits in a rocking chair at the side of the stage, sipping whisky and commenting wryly on what he observes. Eventually May and Eddie tire of their struggle and embrace, but it is apparent that the respite is temporary and that their love, the curse of the past which haunts them, will remain forever damned and hopeless.