Written by Sam Shepherd, this play actually sounds humorous from the reviews I’ve read. According to his own website, Sam Shepherd says “On a very coarse level, it’s a clown show.” “When I begin to explain it, it just takes all the life out of it.” and “It’s not meant to be a representation, just an expression.”
Jason Clark of Entertainment Weekly.com reports -
“You’d never imagine that a Sam Shepard play would have such a literal title, but indeed, Stephen Rea spends a good deal of the show’s 75-minute running time kicking a dead horse. (”F—ing horse!” is his favorite refrain.) As Hobart Struther, a former art dealer having a Beckett-like war with himself while trapped in the desert with his expired equine guide (recreated with startling accuracy by scenic designer Brien Vahey), the lilting Irish actor gives an earthy, full-throttle performance. (It’s not, however, a one-man show; a mystery woman, played by Elissa Piszel, appears at a pivotal point.) Rea is filled with bristle and nuance, yet despite the perspiration his largely physical portrayal yields, he never quite seems to fit the Shepard aesthetic. Sure, his hangdog face suggests a man who has endured some wear and tear, but a sense of true grit is lacking. (And his Irish cadences inevitably invade his speeches.)”
“To be fair, this is one of Shepard’s stranger, more indulgent plays, and he exhibits more confidence as the director (the simple yet atmospheric stagecraft is often striking). The author’s autobiographical nature actually hampers his dialogue. For every succinct, poetic Shepardism — especially in Rea’s more reflective monologues, such as an ode to a woman of his past — there is another that reeks of Western cowboy baggage (and not the boots-and-saddles kind) that should have been put out to pasture long ago.”
Synopsis
The play begins with a man alone in a desert landscape digging a grave. Hobart Struther’s horse has just dropped dead. He stands there in the vast open desert trying to figure out what to do about his predicament. Every once in a while, he gives the corpse an audible kick for having let him down. Struther made his fortune buying paintings for $20 from Wyoming saloons and reselling them for millions. In the throes of some midlife crisis, he has abandoned his wife and his posh life for a “grand sojourn” – what will turn out to be a doomed “quest for authenticity”. In a 80-minute monologue, the former art dealer laments his situation. He engages in a debate between his cynical side and the ingenuous one. He discusses what path brought him here in the first place, the fate of his marriage, his career, politics and eventually the nature of the universe.
“I do not understand why I’m having so much trouble taming the Wild. I’ve done this already. Haven’t I already been through all of this? We closed the Frontier in 1890 something, didn’t we? Didn’t we already accomplish that? The. . . Iron Horse- Coast to Coast. Blasted all the buffalo out of here. An ocean of bones from Sea to Shining Sea. Trails of Tears. Chased the Heathen Redman down to Florida. Paid the Niggers off in mules and rich black dirt. Whupped the Chinee and strung them up with their own damn pony-tails. Decapitated the Mexicans. Erected steel walls to keep the riff-raff out. Sucked these hills barren of gold. Ripped the top soil as far as the eye can see. Drained the aquifers. Damned up all the rivers and flooded the valleys for Recreational purposes! Ran off the small farmers. Destroyed Education. Turned our children into criminals. Demolished Art! Invaded Sovereign Nations! What more can we possibly do?” …Hobart Struther
Kicking A Dead Horse by Sam Shepard; Directed by Sam Shepard; Starring Stephen Rea
Design and construction of the dead horse – The Public Theater 2008.