Brotherly Love

Love can be a burdensome, vexing mesh of pain, longing, fighting, displaced passion, and angst. In short, love can be a real pain in the ass. Unless, of course, it’s happening to other people. Then it can be entertaining as hell. Get your fill of one couple’s tale of forlorn love and reckless passion in Sam Shepard’s mythic play Fool for Love, opening Thursday at the Main Street Playhouse. Set in a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert and performed by the Alliance Theatre Lab, the story centers on Eddie and May, two young lovers who also happen to be half-siblings. He’s a rough-spoken rodeo performer; she’s a disheveled girl looking for stability. They battle over Eddie’s frequent disappearing acts, his numerous affairs, and their on-again/off-again dysfunctional but all-too-ardent relationship. At times, their squabbles become physically violent. All the while, the ghost of their dead father watches over them, swigging a bottle of whiskey while commenting on what he sees unfolding. It’s a haunting tale of crazy love, desperation, and the powerlessness of inflamed passion.

Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Starts: June 9. Continues through June 26, 2011