a lie of the mind

It's hard to believe that before now Magic Theatre had never staged a production of Sam Shepard's 1985 magnum opus A Lie of the Mind, especially considering the vast number of Shepard plays they have premiered over the years.  The playwright's ties to Magic are very close indeed, as he was the theater's artist-in-residence from 1974 to 1984, and A Lie of the Mind is the latest event in their multi-year celebration "Sheparding America."  And what an intensely absorbing production it is.  The action divides between the wife-and-husband characters of Beth and Jake, with Beth as her family helps her recover from a horrific beating by Jake that inflicted very serious brain damage, and with Jake as he obsesses over memories of Beth and fights through a mysterious illness of his own under the overbearing eye of his mother.  The entire 8-person cast is superb, with Jessi Campbell and Sean San José turning in particularly mesmerizing performances as Beth and Jake.  I also loved James Wagner as Beth's brother Mike, by turns caring and frustrated as he urges his sister toward recovery, and Julia McNeal (Pearl from Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth!) as Beth's mother Meg infuses the role with just the right amount of innocent surreality.  The live music Shepard calls for in the script is performed here by musician/composers Nicholas Aives and Jason Cirimele, and their subtle fiddle and-guitar score skillfully emphasizes the playwright's themes of the American West and the American family.  Shepard is never afraid to delve deep into the dark corners of the human psyche, and in A Lie of the Mind he explores how we search for love, and how we suffer for it.