In Sam Shepards vision of a self-destructive Hollywood nightmare, art, consumerism, film and popular culture are used and abused to hallucinatory effect. Rabbit Brown arrives at a failing LA film studio to save the day, or rather to create a disaster big enough to save a film project worth billions. The characters descend collectively into madness, if they were not already mad. Peculius Stage brings Shepards poetic script to life with sizzling vitality. Each actor fully inhabits his own warped character; whether they are spitting words at each other or desperately monologuing, it is the poetry and language that dominates. From the fast-talking producer Lanx to the cynical drummer Tympani (for whom good moods are worse than plasticine cups), the characters are all actors in one way or another, furiously calling for attention and each playing the impossible roles assigned to them by the company. The West as a place for looking inside yourself becomes more than just a metaphor as the characters start to act out their fantasies. Tympani (Ben Salter) becomes a diner chef, frying eggs on his drums, Lanx (Tyrone Huntley) furiously punches the air as a boxer, while Miss Scoons (Elle Nunn), a secretary combining 50s pin-up and a Barbara Cartwright novel, crawls around on the floor as an Irish nun. Rabbit too falls and during an intense and violent battle of words between him and the green-skinned, wild-haired Wheeler (whose costume is reminiscent of The Mighty Booshs Old Greg, with all the weirdness intact) the audience is left wondering who they can trust. This tightly controlled productions small stage and tiny auditorium increase the feeling of claustrophobia. The script has been heavily edited - perhaps this is what creates the confusion; however, the story lends itself to kaleidoscopic jumble and is unlikely to be any clearer, even in its full form. This is one of the strangest plays I have ever seen, but extremely gripping for all that. A wonderfully surreal and messed-up trip.
