Did Critics Find a Slice of Heaven in Shepard's God of Hell?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "Shepard's new play The God of Hell makes an impassioned, though not entirely coherent, argument that the administration's unchecked militarism threatens our democratic way of life. Though far from his best work, it marks a provocative change of pace for the writer… Lou Jacob directed the production, and he lets the pace drag somewhat in the first scene. David Korins' set is just dumpy enough, and Lindsay Jones' sound design adds an air of menace whenever the front door is opened. Shepard, currently starring in Caryl Churchill's A Number at New York Theatre Workshop, may have rushed to complete this new work in time for the recent election. While the playwright zaps the Bush administration much the way Welch zaps his torture victims, he might have articulated his political points more clearly. As it is, The God of Hell is a broad attack on overly vague targets. It would be more effective if it took aim with more precision."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "The show's top-of-the-line cast, led by Randy Quaid and J. Smith-Cameron as a politically out-of-touch farming couple in rural Wisconsin, has a field day tearing down scenery in the venerable Shepard tradition. Directed by Lou Jacob, this 90-minute portrait of an old-time America invaded by a cruel new America starts off much more satisfyingly than it finishes. What it ultimately has to say about a nation forced to march in regimental lockstep is pretty standard agitprop. But unlike, say, the more literal-minded Embedded, Tim Robbins's pep rally of a play about the invasion of Iraq, The God of Hell pokes fun at its own righteous self as well as its broad political targets."
Frank Scheck of The New York Post: "Sam Shepard's new play was apparently written and staged hastily in a burst of political fervor, and it reveals the strain. Maddeningly allusive and abstract, The God of Hell lacks the force of its convictions… Shepard is clearly making a statement about American imperialism and the current administration's use of patriotism to justify its goals, but he fails to do so with sufficient satirical bite or wit. Under Lou Jacob's effective direction, the stellar cast shows admirable emotional and physical commitment, but fails to bring life to a play that doesn't have the teeth to gets its points across."
David Rooney of Variety: "A tart slice of American absurdism, The God of Hell has Sam Shepard's unmistakable, iconoclastic stamp all over it. The playwright places rural archetypes in isolation and then threatens their identity with outside forces, in this case, a secretive right-wing government intent on imposing rigid ideology disguised as patriotism and concern for national security. Sound familiar? Perhaps somewhat hastily hustled together to hit the boards during election season, the play trades knowingly in the current climate of fear. While its political satire is blunted by unsound plot logic, the vigorous staging and performances nonetheless make for dynamic theater."
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Beware of mysterious government officials offering cookies with American-flag icing--especially one as smiling and unctuous as the creepy character played by Tim Roth in The God of Hell, Sam Shepard's strange, 80-minute screed against the intrusion of supposed patriots into the lives and freedoms of ordinary folks. The play, which New School University premiered Tuesday at its small theater in Greenwich Village, is quite a jumble, a black comedy that probably should have been put away in a drawer for six months and then given a second look by its author. As it stands, The God of Hell has the anger and white-hot energy--as well as the incoherence--of something dashed off in the heat of passion. Still, it's by the man who wrote True West, Buried Child and Fool for Love, so the end, no matter how bewildering and disappointing, is bound to have more than passing interest for dedicated theatergoers."
Elysa Gardner of The USA Today: "The God of Hell, which opened off-Broadway Tuesday at the Actors Studio Drama School Theatre, is on its surface lean, mean and masterfully acerbic. But beneath its darkly comic exterior lies a tender, yearning heart, and it's the tension between these two elements--what Shepard sees happening in his country and what he wants for it--that makes God at once pungent and poignant."
Linda Winer of Newsday: "An 80-minute apocalyptic satirical tragedy, this is more overtly political--not to mention raucously silly--than any of Shepard's best known visions of the hip and unknowable open road. Lou Jacob has directed an irresistible cast with all the conviction of a sci-fi B-movie and a shivering wink of existential mystery that suggests Harold Pinter by way of Samuel Beckett."