Fool for Love

Sam Shepard

Fool for Love

Sadie Frost and Carl Barat star in Sam Shepard's play about the desire of a generation, and the destruction it wreaks on the next generation. Directed by Neil Sheppeck. 1.6 out of 5 based on 8 reviews
Fool for Love

Omniscore:

Location Hammersmith
Venue Riverside Studios
Director Neil Sheppeck
Cast Sadie Frost Carl Barat
From January 2010
Until March 2010
Box Office 020 8237 1111
 

Sadie Frost and Carl Barat star in Sam Shepard's play about the desire of a generation, and the destruction it wreaks on the next generation. Directed by Neil Sheppeck.

Suitable for ages 14 and over.

Reviews

The Financial Times

Ian Shuttleworth

"Barat's accent as Eddie is dreadful: he wouldn’t recognise a rhotic “r” if he lassoed one – but the rope skills he demonstrates make that no danger… [Frost] has a better sense of pacing and exudes more physical assurance than her co-star, but the latter is belied by a trait she shares with him of seeming to make every move or strike every pose because it has been specifically prescribed by the director."

01/02/2010

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The Guardian

Michael Billington

"I first saw the play in New York in 1983 and have never forgotten how the original performers hurled themselves at both the motel walls and each other with a frenetic violence. It is difficult for English actors to produce that innate physicality, and Frost and Barat rarely suggest they have been much further west than Truro."

29/01/2010

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The Stage

Gerald Berkowitz

"...while director Neil Sheppeck has guided Sadie Frost to some indications of her character’s raw nerves and desperation, he allows Carl Barat to play his character far too laid-back, distanced from his emotions rather than overwhelmed by them. So we never get the sense that this small motel room on the edge of the desert is in danger of exploding from the uncontrollable energy within."

29/01/2010

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Time Out

Andrzej Lukowski

"Small, shrill and hyperactive, [Frost] plays the ruined May like a petulant child... [Barat is] surprisingly decent, all rangy charisma, glib but dangerous. Yet that doesn't cut it for a text that demands virtuosity... Gerald McDermott is impressively elemental as the father"

04/02/2010

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The Times

Benedict Nightingale

"...it's madness to attempt so powerful and so American a piece unless you have extraordinary actors playing the incestuous half-sister and half-brother at its molten core — and Sadie Frost and Carl Barat are, well, appealing but modestly gifted celebs... [Neither] can sustain a trailer-trash accent and Barat exudes more sensitivity than menace"

30/01/2010

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The Evening Standard

Henry Hitchings

"There should be a visceral sexual charge; instead it’s marrowless. Frost’s is a flat, one-note performance. Barat, who looks like Macaulay Culkin impersonating Bryan Ferry, feels woefully overexposed, given his inexperience."

29/01/2010

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The Daily Express

Mark Shenton

"Sam Shepard’s usually galvanising portrait of the incestuous passions and dark family secrets that are uncovered by two half-siblings limply emerges as a feeble study in mutual self-regard instead of self-destruction in [Frost and Barat's] inexperienced hands... At least it is very short, running at only 55 minutes."

07/02/2010

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The Daily Telegraph

Charles Spencer

"This is a play that is nothing without strong sexual chemistry and a thrill of danger between the two leading players. Here all we get is embarrassed English reserve in a laborious production by Neil Sheppeck that seems to last three times as long as its 70-minute running time. What next, one wonders wanly? Chris Evans as King Lear? Jordan as Lady Macbeth? After this fiasco, nothing would surprise me."

29/01/2010

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