Fool for Love: Animal lust and mysterious family ties illuminate this exciting performance in a Vanier Motel.
Photo. Julie Laurin
The grungy, gritty, hyper-realistic combat of a doomed couple in a seedy motel room in Vanier is a must see! Even if you can’t understand French, read the play (it’s not long) or get a short summary on line, and get a ticket. It means 70 minutes of sitting on a chair facing that huge bed where Yves Turbide (Eddy ) explodes in rage and jealousy, where Nathaly Charrette (May) buries her head in her body and releases her torment as she is pulled between her violent attraction for Eddy and her hate for the man who abandoned her. It all plays out under the strange gaze of the mysterious father (Paul Rainville) who watches them as he plucks on his guitar. He appears to know them but he remains invisible until the past is revealed and he appears to drift into Eddy’s vision of the world as the past tells us of the “other” family Eddie discovered when he was young. Even this near mythical father figure from the past learns about the death of one of his wives, and as the truth about his links to the transgressive relationship between May and Eddie comes to light, we understand their feelings of being trapped like animals in their own uncontrollable instincts for the rest of their lives. Sam Shepard takes us into a Wild West cowboy world that is fraught with all the complexities of contemporary human relations.