“Cowboy Mouth is an interesting insight into a mash-up of music and absurdist theatre of the time, however, the artists need engage with the characters meaningfully, not wear them as a type.“
Kate Stratford
3 electric guitars
Flight Path Theatre
21 – 30 March 2024
Sam Shepard’s absurdist one-act play Cowboy Mouth was written in one night back in 1971– a collaborative effort of a married Shepard and his lover, musician Patti Smith. It was autobiographical in nature and it is bemusing to consider what sort of particular substances they were on! The piece played (with both Shepard and Smith in the roles of Slim and Cavale respectively) for one night, whereupon Shepard ran away, abandoning the production and Smith simultaneously.
This all possibly explains the haphazard, unformed and strange nature of the play. If it had come from the pen of a less distinguished writer/actor, one suspects this Shepard fragment would have been consigned to the recycle bin decades ago. It tries to speak to a time when a generation had hopes that Dylan and Jagger were the new saviours and rock ‘n’ roll promised a new, different American Dream.
Natassa Zoe (Cavale) and Austin Hayden (Slim) play the two lovers trapped in a tiny room by drugs and mental illness. The energy of their performance explodes onto the stage but tends to fluctuate in an unstructured way throughout the 50 minutes of this piece. There is much yelling juxtaposed with mumbling and inconsistent accents, so diction at times becomes a little indistinct and characters unconvincing. Dramatic tension is both an art and an arc, even in black comedy. Rock ‘n’ roll may appear unstructured and rebellious but that is in the approach to life, not to the art form. Whilst Shepard’s Cowboy Mouth might explore and celebrate the anarchic nature of the lifestyle, it also proposes the focus necessary to get the message across. Performances need to reflect this in practice. Director Anna Houston’s hand needed to be firmer here.
At the end of the short play, the audience were invited to a live performance of Dande and the Lion, a rock band playing immediately next door. Here, Zoe and Hayden prove that as lead performers they far better musicians than actors. A note here – the programme lists the musical guests as changing every night.
Cowboy Mouth is an interesting insight into a mash-up of music and absurdist theatre of the time, however, the artists need engage with the characters meaningfully, not wear them as a type.
Kate Stratford, Theatre Now
