Chorale

There are a lot of bits to this ‘roadshow’ of works by Sam Shepard. As well as two of his plays, there’s a rare 1981 film of his work performed by Joseph Chaikin and a mash up of his poetry and prose with musical accompaniment. Oh, and there’s a gig too.

In fact, I didn’t even make it to the gig, which is really an added extra to two ‘main’ programmes (which you can watch over two nights, or – in one instance – a whole day).

It’s worth catching all of it. The works by the American screenwriter, playwright, actor, buddy of Bob Dylan and one-time lover of Patti Smith are so intriguing and varied they more than warrant Presence Theatre’s holistic approach. Seeing all the pieces demonstrates how diversely Shepard deals with recurring themes. Father-and-son issues crop up again and again, as does the fallacy of the Great American Dream and the ghosts that haunt the US’s vast deserts.

The ensemble, made up of three actors and one musician (Ben Kritikos of band ‘Herons!’) are versatile, and in their competent hands Shepard’s often obscure dialogue achieves real depth.

John Chancer is great as a desperate, mad father in the best of the two plays, ‘The Holy Ghostly’. Its narrative completely confounds our expectations, beginning as a father-and-son trip into the desert, and becoming a riff on death, trauma and those we leave behind, following the appearance of fire, guns, a bazooka and a mad shaman spirit.

It runs alongside the other programme’s ‘The War in Heaven’, co-written by Shepard and his mentor and collaborator Chaikin, which is too static, hard to grasp and ultimately the most disappointing of the pieces.

The additional section starts with intense, poignant film ‘Savage/Love’ performed by Chaikin. Prose-poetry mix ‘The Animal (You)’ follows, which is beautifully compiled by actor Jack Tarlton and director Simon Usher. Shepard’s fragmented rhythms are transporting; listening to it, and to this roadshow as a whole, you’re faced with a surreal yet romantic vision of a troubled America.