Theatre and Dance

The company say it's set to be an evening that will not only entertain, but also introduce people to the work of one of the most prolific writers of the past 40 years.

The first play, ‘Cowboy Mouth’ is a collaboration with the iconic Patti Smith (with whom Shepard was having an affair at the time) and sees the temptress Cavale kidnap Slim to turn him into a rock-and-roll star. He resists but they fall in love, fight, make up and order lobster!

A desolate motel room on the edge of the Mojave Desert is the setting for the second play, ‘Fool for Love’, where May and Eddie act out their disturbing 15 year cycle of passion and abandonment.

Peppermint Muse is a fairly new touring theatre company which aims to bring refreshing, inspiring and exciting work to audiences everywhere.

Cowboy Mouth

As they prepared these two plays, which make up only their second production, Associate Director Steve Cunningham and Artistic Director Lisa White, spoke to us about these plays, the aims of the company and their hopes for the future.

Who are Peppermint Muse?

Lisa: Peppermint Muse is a touring company. We were set up earlier this year and we’re aiming to bring refreshing, inspiring and exciting work to new and seasoned audiences.

How did it come about?

Steve: For both of us, it had been a dream to have a theatre company for quite a long while. We met through a mutual friend. Lisa was thinking about putting on The Maids by Jean Genet and it was a play I’d wanted to direct for a long time as well, so we got talking about it and it just kind of went from there. This was summer 2008.

So it all started with a mutual desire to do a particular play and grew from there? How did the name come about?

Lisa: That was me! My other business is a marketing business which comes up with names and brands and Peppermint Muse came out of a brainstorm about the values that we wanted to have as a company – refreshing and inspiring theatre – something that’s going to inspire people, that’s going to be new and that is going to be relevant to what’s happening in the world today and bring new audiences into the theatre.

But you’re not necessarily talking about doing completely new plays are you. Are they plays you have done so far ones that you enjoy but don’t seem to be on very much?

Steve: I think so. We started with The Maids which is a bit of a classic but not very frequently performed. So really we want to do old classics like that and revive things that aren’t done very often, but also to do perhaps lesser known work by established authors. And we’re also interested in doing some new writing in the future as well.

Lisa: The other option is to look at an established classic that’s out there in the public domain and do some kind of a version of it again, looking at the idea of bringing something new to the table.

The reason we chose the Shepard plays is that although he is probably one of the great playwrights, he is performed very little outside of the US and we found that when we discussed it with various theatres, it was something they were quite excited about putting on. So it fulfilled both criteria – it was something that isn’t done that much but also that would attract some audiences.

Sam Shepard plays are often on a university curriculum but it’s very difficult to actually go and see them?

Lisa: Yes – our first stop is Milton Keynes. Stantonbury Campus Theatre have a very large drama department and the Head of Drama there is very excited. She is bringing a very large crowd of people because she loves Shepherd and wants her pupils to experience it. If you can’t get to see it live it’s not the same as reading the play.

What’s the premise of Cowboy Mouth?

Steve: It’s quite an early play, written in about 1971. It’s a very strange, surreal and madcap comedy but with a very dark subtext, but you could just play it for the comedy if you want to. However, we’ve mined it for anything we could get out of it.

Lisa: It was a collaboration between Shepherd and Patti Smith, the iconic rock star, during their affair. Shepard left his wife and child and shacked up [with Patti]. They drank a lot and came up with this piece. It was shelved as an early, crazy piece but what we’ve found by re-exploring it is that it has got a lot of parallels with Fool for Love, which was written in 1982 and is seen as one of the great 20th century plays.
A young lady called Cavale has kidnapped a guy called Slim and wants to turn him into a rock and roll star but they fall in love and they fight and they make up and they order lobster!

So she locks him in a room and wants to turn him into a rock star – it sounds a bit like the X Factor?!

Lisa; That’s actually one of the things we’ve been discussing! In spite of some of the madness in it there are some parallels with the whole fame game. Is it possible to create a rock and roll star based on what you’ve seen on television? Cavale has seen Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and all the greats and thinks she can turn Slim into one of those.

It’s interesting that when it was written in 1971, the idea of creating a rock star like we do now just wouldn’t have been there and now 30-40 years later it has become more relevant. On a lighter note, the publicity for the show mentions lassoing – have the actors had to have special lessons?

Lisa: Yes, that was an interesting exercise, a few weeks of Googling found the Circus Space in London who run various courses. There’s a tutor there from Canada named Lila Lifely (you couldn’t make it up!) who teaches Western skills so the actor playing Eddie had two one to one sessions with her and we have a genuine lasso rope as well.

What’s the premise for Fool for Love?

Steve: It’s set in a motel room in the Mohave Desert where May is staying. She is visited by Eddie her long term lover. She has managed to get away from him but they have had a relationship for about 15-20 years which hasn’t always been easy.

Eddie has come after her to try and put things right so it’s really about the story of their relationship. It’s quite a strange play because although it’s set in this motel room, it’s not really a realistic play because of the presence of another character – an old man. It’s not really clear what he’s doing there. He’s not actually in the room but he’s observing everything. So there’s this blend of realism and illusion which is really interesting. And it’s one of the things that Shepard does really well.

It sounds like that in both plays there’s a lot to come and see, to work out what’s going on? The two plays aren’t known for being put on together and they were written about 10 years apart. Why did you decide to put them on together? Did you feel that they fitted well?

Lisa: Absolutely, especially as an evening’s entertainment to introduce people to Shepard. Cowboy Mouth will shock some people – the language is definitely for the over 15s – but it is funny, it has an element of comedy, and again it has the idea of a very tortured relationship but told in an upbeat and frantic way.

Then you come back after the interval and see Fool for Love which is considered to be one of his mature, brilliant pieces but actually has these parallels [with Cowboy Mouth] with very strong female characters. Shepherd is not really known for [those], he’s known for writing brilliant male characters, but there are two very strong females are at the centre of these pieces with relationships that have huge tension in them. Both plays are about very intense and very tortured relationships.

When rehearsing we’ve found elements in both that are in parallel and that we’ve been able to bring out. We are also trying to do this with our set which we are keeping very simple. We just think that they feel right together.

We’ve worked as a team as well – although we’ve rehearsed things separately we’ve worked together on physical workshops to try and explore the movement side of the plays as well. So it feels very much like it’s one piece, although it’s two.

It sounds like a real team effort?

Lisa: Exactly, and to feel that we’re at this place with only production number two is really exciting. We hope to continue to build a team that wants to grow organically, and carry on doing exciting work.

So, both have strong female characters, and are about tense relationships, but they were written ten years apart, so if you’re interested in Shepard, it’s also a good way to see how his writing progressed but still had similarities?

Steve: Certainly. Fool for Love is probably one of his better known plays, Cowboy Mouth is little known, but he was incredibly prolific, and hasn’t stopped writing from the early 60s. He would churn out one act play after one act play and was a very different writer then.

You can see the progression from his very early work through to his more mature work – it’s fascinating. And also there’s a consistency there because some themes have continued even if the style has changed slightly.

Lisa: We also want to put on something that’s entertaining, so the idea is whether you are a student of drama or you’re just interested in seeing exciting theatre you can come and watch these and take away from it what you will. He is such a good writer and they are such interesting pieces that there’s something for everyone. There’s some comedy, some fruity language and some deep emotional moments that hopefully will touch the audience.

So there’s something for everyone?

Steve: Yes. For me, Sam Shepard is one of the great writers, and it’s a chance to see two very different plays - one that people may know but one that most people won’t . These plays aren’t performed very often, but he’s such a great writer, people should come along to experience it.

Lisa: Yes, Sam Shepherd is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and an Oscar nominated actor and these two productions bring cowboys, lassoes and a rock star together - what else could you want from an evening’s entertainment.