Sam Shepard wrote westerns, but a different kind. Of course there was "True West," but then so many of his other plays have a touch or a taste of the west. Men are cowboys stuck in the city. Horses race rather than run free on the range. An d Simpatico" is soaked in that macho male world. The production, at the Chain, directed by David Zayas Jr., shows us the best of Shepard, but also a kind of emptiness that lies beneath the emotion. We have a sense of watching a movie acted out on stage. The emotion is there, but it still seems somewhat impersonal.
Kirk Gostkowski as Carter is an older more settled friend to Vinnie, played by Brandon Hughes, the cowboy in the city. The two battle, struggle, rekindle friendships, and sort through betrayals. Elizabeth Bays, Christina Elise Perry and Monica Park all try to make sense of the mess the two men have left behind. Pete Mattaliano plays an older man being blackmailed, even as he refused to be.
The plot gets a little complicated and begins to feel like a film noir detective story. Shepard writes great dialogue and this cast delivers it with the proper punch even as the detective-like story unfolds. And Zayas directs the show with a kind of mix of Mamet meets Shepard, a male world where men simply behave liked caged animals more than cowboys. I enjoyed the play moment for moment. At some point, I began to feel the plot focused too much on photos and blackmail and not enough on relationships.
Shepard knew how to write dialogue. And just overhearing that delivered well is exciting. He's sort of our American Shakespeare, in a strange way. Instead of kings, we get cowboys. We watch people caught like bears with a foot in a trap. They struggle and somehow they survive. This story became a little too complex for me as if the bear trap got a little too sophisticated. And I didn't care as much about the complications as the characters.
Scenes where Mattaliano tries to flatter, and even seduce, seemed to do the reverse. Time can change text as much as context does. I don't believe this is necessarily a great play, but it sure has some great writing. And along with some great acting, at least for me, that was more than enough.
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