Shepard gets political, but 'God of Hell' is predictable

Throughout the 1980s — when left-wing British playwrights were eviscerating Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan for breakfast — the elusive Sam Shepard preferred to probe matters personal and mythic.

For decades, legions of Shepard scholars cast this iconic American writer as a poet of the West and historian of the dysfunctional heartland family. Shepard seemed consumed by rusted cars, parental abandonment, fraternal fistfights and the kind of sultry, dirt-smeared woman that cries out for Kim Basinger. His politics? Questionable and largely irrelevant.

Clearly, Abu Ghraib and the Patriot Act finally ticked Shepard off enough to put his political cards on the table.

Shepard's farcical "The God of Hell," which received its Midwestern premiere at the ambitious Next Theatre Monday night under Karen Kessler's direction, is an overtly political play, an overtly partisan play. Indeed, prior to its New York premiere, Shepard gently called it "a takeoff on Republican fascism."

Shepard even rushed the play into low-budget production at the Actors Studio Drama School Theatre so that it could open before the November 2004 election and, he forlornly hoped, influence the outcome. Evanston's savvy, edgy Next — which moves more quickly than anyone else to grab recent off-Broadway works — has snagged the show even before London.

They'll love it in London this fall, because "God of Hell" plays directly into European constructions of American insecurity, obsessive jingoism and inclination to bully. For those of us who prefer a more complex or nuanced geo-political view? "God of Hell" doesn't evidence a lot of staying power.

But its problems at Next might also stem from an uneven production with too many competing styles and not enough tension. As a result, events are darkly interesting (especially for Shepard fans) but hardly compelling.

Set in a Wisconsin farmhouse, "God of Hell" follows a rural couple named Frank and Emma (played by Roderick Peeples and Natalie West) who are invaded first by a troubled old friend, Haynes (Joseph Wycoff), with complex governmental ties, and then by a besuited government official called Welch (Troy West), whose flag-waving bonhomie turns into a tortuous way with wires and electricity. The infamous Abu Ghraib hoods make an explicit experience. In Wisconsin.

That's Shepard's incontrovertible point, of course. If government-sanctioned torture were going on in your average heartland dairy farm, we'd protest with a bit more vigor.

Aside from pleasing the liberal choir, the play is at its best when it deconstructs Shepard's signature, slightly twisted landscape. And toward the end, Shepard finally adds needed depth by giving Welch one of those "You can't handle the truth!" speeches, when he attacks the rural couple for enjoying freedom without the responsibilities. But much of the rest feels predictable and unsatisfying.

Kessler's actors do best when they play with truth. Natalie West has that quality throughout And the terrific Troy West consistently evokes the comic chills Shepard intended. But other key moments here are overplayed, and the overall pace of the 90-minute show waxes and wanes without either sufficient surety or a clear sense of where things are leading.

cjones5@tribune.com

Related topic galleries: Kim Basinger, Ronald Reagan, Sam Shepard, Evanston

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