The God of Hell with Tim Roth and Randy Quaid
The God of Hell with Tim Roth and Randy Quaid
The God of Hell with Tim Roth and Randy Quaid#0
Posted: 11/20/04 at 5:16pm
I highly recommend Sam Shepard's "The God of Hell" currently playing at the old Westbeth space on Bank Street (now the Actor's Studio Drama School Theatre). I saw it last night and found it to be one of the most thoroughly entertaining evenings I've had in quite some time. In terms of contemporary relevance, it's a wonderfuly bold, brash and unapologetic critique of the Bush admnistration. In a taught 80 minutes, Sam Shepard creates an at times humorous, at times shocking satire on how our corrupt government has seduced middle America into surrendering its soul and ideals and into buying a warped and evil version of the American dream in exchange for empty promises (and an illusory tax breaks).
Shepard presents the story of a simple midwestern couple (the outstanding Randy Quaid and J. Smith-Cameron) whose uncomplicated existence and blissful political apathy is destroyed when it is invaded by an all-knowing, all-powerful (bordering on totalitarian) state, personified by a government agent played by Tim Roth, with oily, puckish, creepy bravura. Frank Wood is also excellent as a mysterious houseguest who is hiding from the government, having apparently worked on some sort of top secret experiments for it.
The play has clean and efficient structure (there's not a wasted line or moment) and Shepard's writing is gorgeously lucid, even as he trades in metaphors of conspiracy and subterfuge. By the play's final scene, he achieves a similar sort of paranoid absurdist horror found in Tracy Lett's "Bug" and some of his own earlier work. In interviews, Shepard has said he wrote this play very quickly out of sheer anger at the current administration. While you get the sense occasionally that he didn't take a lot of time dotting i's and crossing t's here, there's an energy and passion and immediacy to his writing here that's thrilling to witness and far overrides any minor quibbles one might have regarding some of the little loose ends here and there.
This is a terrific production -- the writing and acting are superb, as are the direction by Lou Jacob, the charming set design from David Korins and lighting design from David Lander. The play runs through November 29th. Definitely go if you can -- it's well-worth seeing.
re: The God of Hell with Tim Roth and Randy Quaid#1
Posted: 11/20/04 at 5:30pm
I loooooove Sam Shepard.
"Buried Child" will forever continue to creep me out.
-d.b.j-
re: The God of Hell with Tim Roth and Randy Quaid#2
Posted: 11/22/04 at 11:05amFYI -- In a story about "The God of Hell" this weekend on NY1's "On Stage," it was mentioned that several producers are very interested in snatching up this production, perhaps moving it to a commercial space and extending the run beyond the 11/29 closing date. I hope it happens -- not many people will get to see it during its present limited engagement at a 120 seat space and this production certainly merits a much larger audience (not to mention, I wouldn't mind seeing it again).
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