Kicking a Dead Horse

at the Almeida Theatre (Off West End)

Genre: Drama
Opened 10 Sep 2008
Written: by Sam Shepard
Directed: Sam Shepard
Cast: Stephen Rea
Produced: Abbey Theatre, Dublin
Synopsis: The story of Hobart Struther, a wealthy Manhattan art dealer, who has ditched his shiny city life in search of authenticity in the modern-day wild west.

What the popular press had to say.....
NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, " Fails to grapple with the personal and public issues it raises." SAM MARLOW for THE TIMES says, "Shepard seems at times to be railing against the very imagery with which he has become so strongly associated — but that internal debate makes the play almost as arid as the landscape it inhabits." JEREMY Austin for THE STAGE says, "Stephen Rea slurs his way through Sam Shepard’s dreary allegory for mid-life crisis like a tourettes Bob Dylan. It’s not that it is a bad performance, it is just that there is no dynamic in his character."RHODA KOENIG for THE INDEPENDENT says, "The last action of Shepard's play may create an almighty bang, but emotionally and philosophically his play ends with a whimper." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "Superbly performed by Stephen Rea...Shepard's self-directed monologue may sometimes feel like a summation of his complex feelings, mixing yearning and rage, about the American West. But the intensity of the performance prevents you feeling that a dead horse, while being kicked, is simultaneously being flogged." CHARLES SPENCER or THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Never mind the horse, it's this dead play that deserves a kicking."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Guardian
The Daily Telegraph
The Times

Production photo by Ros Kavanagh