Cowboy Mouth

"Cowboy Mouth" is my favorite of Shepard's plays, though I'd never actually seen it performed before today. This production strives to be true to the passionate desire that is at the heart of the play, but I feel it misses more of the marks than it hits. Some of the moments of intense connections between Cavalle and Slim were real and honest, but others didn't quite happen. Slim needed to be a better guitar player to make the play's premise more believable, but since Shepard's plays are more fable than reality this lack was not really a deal-breaker. This play is not easy to accomplish successfully, but this troupe made a really, really good effort. The final moments, with Lobsterman's transformation and Cavalle's transfer of loyalty, was gu... full review

Tony Frankel, theatre critic for Stage and Cinema here. Here is a link to my updated review of COWBOY MOUTH. http://www.stageandcinema.com/2011/07/17/hollywood-fringe-2/... full review

A passionate play put together by passionate people. Cowboy Mouth is riveting for all of its sixty minutes as we watch two desperate people caught in the liminal space between needing to leave and needing to stay; needing to be loved and needing to be saved. This production is as raw as it is nuanced, set in a tiny, cluttered space that barely contains the sheer force of its actors. And rightly so: Slim and Cavale are bursting at the seams. Go see Cowboy Mouth, you'll better for it. ... full review

The passion, energy and bipolar personalities of the characters tied me into a world I don't wanna be in, but just have to know more about. The performances were stellar. Some of the best actors in the Fringe. I wish I could see it again, but have a vivid memory to keep me for a while. Always secondary, but very important to me as a visual person, was the lighting and staging and use if the space. The effort to use every inch of the stage in intriguing ways was my favorite facet of the show, strange as that may be. ... full review

Tony Frankel here, theatre critic for Stage and Cinema. As impressed as I am with the commitment, passion and vision of the UC San Diego grads involved with the production of Sam Shepard's existential one-acter COWBOY MOUTH, I found myself distracted - and ultimately exhausted - by the over-enthusiastic acting and direction. Shepard's 1971 play is an autobiographical account of the brief and torrid affair he had with singer Patti Smith, who not only co-wrote the piece, but starred in the original production with Shepard himself. The play hit so close to home for Shepard, that he bolted after one performance to reunite with his wife. COWBOY MOUTH is a brutal examination of an affair used as a tool to fill life's eternal voids. The glari... full review