(Left) Mary (Marie Leigh) meets Red (Lauren Preston) and “The Horse’ in Late: A Cowboy Song at Custom Made
Late: A Cowboy Song: Comedy by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Ariel Craft. Custom Made Theatre at Gough Street Playhouse, 1629 Gough Street in San Francisco. (510) 207-5774, www.custommade.org. January 8 – February 1, 2015
Late: A Cowboy Song takes us on a bumpy ride at Custom Made [rating:2]
For theatre aficionados seeing plays written early in respected playwrights’ careers may be appreciated to compare it with their later works. Late: A Cowboy Song was written by Sarah Ruhl relatively early in her career and as staged by Custom Made Theatre is given a bumpy ride. While there are hints of potential greatness it does not foreshadow the quality of her two plays In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play and The Clean House that were Pulitzer Prize finalists. Custom Made’s first plays of 2014-2015 season (Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five and Albee’s Three Tall Women) were solid productions earning well deserved accolades. For multiple reasons accolades are few for Late: A Cowboy Song that seems longer than its uninterrupted 84 minute running time.
First, the play is obtuse and feminist Ruhl is basically interested in exploring gender identification in both physical and naming aspects. She also surrounds that major theme with poetic passages of love in song, the intricate problems of marriage, the effect of art’s ability to transform as well a brief exploration of Henri Bergson’s Theory of Relative Time. Secondly, on opening night both my guest and I could not understand the words to (apparently) poetic songs with original music by the talented Liz Ryder. Third, despite the attractive backdrop of a Western sunset, the jumbled multi-area set (Erik LaDue) obstructed the continuity of the 25 or more short scenes. Fourth, the direction of the cast seemed disjointed and lastly one member of the three member cast appeared uncomfortable with the sometimes intricate dialog.
The three characters are Mary (Maria Leigh) who is always late, her husband Crick (Brian Martin) who is fascinated by art and Red (Lauren Preston) a lady cowboy, not to be confused with a cowgirl. (Think gender identification). The gender problem becomes amplified when Mary and Crick’s baby is born with indeterminate sexual appendages and they (actual Mary decides) to raise “her” as a girl, give her a non-gender specific name of Blue and allow the child to decide his/her gender later in life.
Mary and Crick live in Pittsburg where Mary meets Red who lives on the outskirts. Red, dresses in male cowboy attire (costume by Brooke Jennings), plays the guitar and teaches Mary how to ride a horse. Friendship between Red and Mary blossoms into love driving a wedge between Crick and Mary. Conflict leads to violence; relative time is explored in a single scene and as Mary and Crick part Red and Mary relatively ride off into the sunset.
CAST: Mary – Maria Leigh; Crick – Brian Martin; Red – Lauren Preston.
CREATIVE STAFF: Cat Howser (Stage Managemer/Prop Design); Erik LaDue (Scenic Design); Brooke Jennings (Costume Design); Liz Ryder (Original Score, Sound Design); Colin Johnson (Lighting Design); Stewart Lyle (Technical Director); Jon Bailey, Fight Choreography.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
