“This play is to be performed relentlessly, without a break,” writes Sam Shepard in the opening line of his 1983 play, “Fool for Love.” As the scene insidiously unfolds on a stark, low-rent motel in the Mojave Desert, with faded plaster walls and linoleum floors, an old man in a rocking chair comes into view. He’s sipping whiskey from a Styrofoam cup. “He exists only in the minds of May and Eddie, even though they might talk to him directly and acknowledge his physical presence,” writes Shepard. With this sentence, he introduces the play’s two protagonists — May, a headstrong young woman who craves stability; and Eddie, her former lover, an aloof cowboy, who seeks to trap May once more in the tumultuous cycle that plagued their relationship for decades.
Now, the two are stuck in a hotel room with the figment of a father-figure, trying to work out the complicated web of the past and arrive at answers for the present.
This daunting and rigorous play has fallen into the hands of Shaker Bridge Theatre’s managing director, Adrian Wattenmaker, to bring Shepard’s tale to life on the intimate stage of the Briggs Opera House.
Wattenmaker spoke with the Standard about the difficulties and joys of directing such a rich play, and what he hopes audience members take from this production once it opens on Thursday, Jan. 22.
“Fool for Love” was written by renowned playwright Sam Shepard and is being directed by Shaker Bridge Theatre’s managing director Adrian Wattenmaker. Photos courtesy of Adrian Wattenmaker
“I love the world that Sam Shepard creates,” began Wattenmaker. “It’s like a fantastical dreamscape of the American Southwest. His characters are deeply real, but also have this quality to them that you just cannot hold onto completely. There’s no comfortable place to stand or rest during this play — it is a very physical ride from start to finish.”
Pulling on the American Southwest thread that has become woven into Shepard’s work, Wattenmaker has transformed the Briggs Opera House to a seedy, run-down motel room, in which May, played by Sarah Killough, and Eddie, portrayed by Jacob A. Ware, take center stage.
“As the play unfolds,” Wattenmaker said, “it is revealed that these two main characters are tied together by more than just love. They are half-siblings who share the same father (depicted in the haunting presence of the man in the rocking chair).” Eddie struggles with embodying the very worst of the man who raised him, and May fears the ramifications of loving a man capable of hurting her, with more power than a typical lover might hold. It’s up for interpretation how far to push that truth — whether these characters should present more as siblings or as lovers,” Wattenmaker added.
“In addition,” Wattenmaker said, “this is a deeply physical play. These characters lunge at each other, roll around the stage, fight, cling, grasp onto each other. We brought in a fight coordinator specifically for the staging of this production. The physical dynamic lends itself to the viewing experience just as much as the cerebral, internal relationship does.”
“I’m trying to push the actors more into being two ill-fated lovers and raising the stakes,” added Wattenmaker. “Because the stakes, within the world of Shepard, have never been higher. There is a danger in figuring out what would happen to these two characters if they lost this relationship. And this question of where they go from here is the part I want to push Killough and Ware deeper into.”
This will be Wattenmaker’s first time directing for the Shaker Bridge 2025-26 season, stepping back into a role he says he loves and has inhabited for decades.
For those wishing to experience the intense, tumultuous love affair of May and Eddie, and to see the brilliance of Sam Shepard come to life on stage, the Shaker Bridge Theatre’s production of “Fool for Love” will be opening on Thursday, Jan. 22, and will run through Sunday, Feb. 8.
