The Magic Theatre season is starting out with a bang, presenting the world premier of Sam Shepard's latest opus, The Late Henry Moss. Mr. Shepard has directed the play and cast it with marquee names mostly from the film world. As a result, the performances have been sold out every night. This is one hot ticket for tourists coming into the city.

During the past week it seems either Nick Nolte or Sean Penn has been out due to "sickness". It is a lucky person who gets to see both of these men on stage at the same time. The night we saw the show the production Nick Nolte was out due to a previously injured foot. An equity actor, Robert Ernest, played the role of older brother, Earl Moss. There was nothing in the program to tell what he has appeared in prior to this performance. I can say that Mr. Ernest gave a superlative performance as Earl, imitating Mr. Nolte's voice and mannerism. For several moments, I thought it was the noted film actor on the stage.

Mr. Shepard has reverted to the old fashioned three act and two intermission style. This is probably due to the demands made of the actors. The play has its share of screaming, yelling and disturbance throughout its three hours. There is an emotional intensity in this production.

When asked what the play is about, Sam Shepard said to a New York Times reporter "It's a father and son kind of deal, same stuff." "Same stuff," perhaps, however I think it needs a little more detail. It is about two brothers who confront each other and their violent past in the mythic terrain of Shepard's American West.

Earl and Ray Moss return to the adobe house of their larger than life father, where family mysteries and Henry Moss's death get sorted out in surprising ways.

We see a rumba-dancing girlfriend, a menudo-cooking neighbor, and a taxi driver with stories to tell to inhabiting this comic and dramatic world created by Mr. Shepard. We also see flashbacks of the late Henry Moss, who turned out to be an alcoholic and abrasive man. One could see this man had no friends with exception of his Mexican neighbor.

This play is really minor league Shepard in its present condition. I understand this is a play in progress and it will need a great deal of tightening to become a first class work from this playwright. It really should be put into a two-act play.

The first act starts out slow with a dreamy dance number. We see the late Henry Moss dancing a tango with his Spanish girl friend, a strange sight indeed. The actors dance with exaggerated gestures. They leave the stage and we see both Earl and Ray discussing the late father's death. It is almost a minor take on True West, with Ray trying to get all of the details of his father's death. Neither of the brothers have seen the father for years. Sean Penn, playing Ray, underplays in this act. He is the investigator trying to obtain information from the older brother. There is the impression that Earl knows more about the death then he admits. Robert Ernst (subbing for Mr. Nolte) played the role of the elder brother with great conviction.

The second act actually turns into a comedy, with Woody Harrelson playing the comic taxi cab driver. His performance is ingratiating and he overacts. His wincing and evasive moves make him look like a child who is being scolded. He also looks strange in sneakers and shorts. Flashbacks to Henry Moss in this act are quite striking.

It is the third act that is the meat of the play with Earl and Henry Moss approaching each other at center stage. "Are you seeing me right now?" the boozed up patriarch asks Earl. He keeps repeating this phrase and the son responds with wonderful dialogue. These scenes will probably be repeated by actors in productions for decades to come. In this same act, Sean Penn also comes into his own. Penn, who has been a simmering volcano for two acts, finally erupts with rage.

The best acting comes from film and television character actor James Gammon. He is amazing playing the alcohol-wasted father with a whiskey voice. He throws himself into the unmerciful rhythms of Shepard's script, bringing this production to whole new level. He groans, weeps and grunts from drunkenness to consciousness, in a sterling portrayal of the father.

Cheech Marin has little to do in this production but shuffle in and out with food for the late father in the flashbacks. When the play reverts to the present time, Ray asks Esteban, played by Mr. Marin, why did he come every day to feed the abrasive father, Esteban replies, "well you feed cattle, don't you". Ray looks puzzled. "Even birds have to be fed." That was the extent of his friendship with the late Henry.

Sheila Tousey plays the mysterious Spanish girlfriend, Conchalla. She is excellent in the role as a fiery and provocative enchantress. She represents a death figure, which seems to be a passion in Shepard's plays of late.

The playwright has written some enigmatic suggestive dialogue, but the play does not start to move until the second act when Ray starts to grill the taxi cab driver about the death of his father. Here the play starts slipping back and forth in time as it hones in on its subject. Somewhere down the road this will be turned into a two act play.

The production runs until December 17 at the Theatre on the Square. Tickets are $40 to $65 and you will be lucky if you can find a seat. The Magic Theater's second offering of the season will be the brilliant new Irish play, Mark O'Rowe's Howie, the Rookie with the original London cast. It will play their theater at Fort Mason. Following that, will be an adaptation of Thomas Mann's A Death in Venice, starring world famous Giles Havergal of the Citizens' Theatre of Glasgow.

Cheers - and be sure to check the lineup of great shows this season in the San Francisco area

- Richard Connema