Kicking a Dead Horse
Description
In Sam Shepard’s short play, a successful Western-art dealer (impeccably played by Stephen Rae) is stuck in the desert with a dead horse. Exasperated and contemplative by turns, he finds himself searching for authenticity and, yes, the true West. The playwright has ridden this terrain many times before. The difference here is a keynote of mortality; but, as in Beckett, there’s black humor and a genuine love of clowning and theatricality as the action shifts from seminaturalism to surreal weirdness. But although this valedictory-feeling entrée will be catnip for Shepard fans, it does not achieve much philosophical or emotional depth.—DC
