An explosive entrance of emphatic energy ignites the opening of COWBOY MOUTH, a purgative and compact drama penned by famed playwright Sam Shepherd and rock icon Patti Smith and given a half century-on revival at Flightpath Theatre, Marrickville.

Conceived in a cauldron of chaotic carnality at the dawn of the Seventies, COWBOY MOUTH is a punk rock what the fuck fable about a woman, Cavale, with a crow complex, and a bloke, Slim, a messed-up musician, both fools for love living a lie of the mind.

Cavale is on a mission to make Slim a musical messiah, ”like a rock-and-roll Jesus with a cowboy mouth.”

Slim chance as Slim is confused and infantile, guilt ridden for abandoning his wife and child, taking out his frustrations with cacophonous sets on a drum kit and rambunctious guitar riffs.

Into their milieu comes Lobsterman, a surreal raw prawn food delivery creature who Slim terrorises. Slim gets his comeuppance by becoming cuckold to a crustacean.

If you think that’s absurd, check out the copies of the Australian Women’s Weekly strewn across the set of a grungy Texan adobe abode. And please, if you are going to persist in putting a smoke in a cowboy mouth make it a Marlboro, not a foul fumigation of a herbal fag.

Directed by Anna Houston, this production of COWBOY MOUTH features Natassa Zoe as Cavale and Austin Hayden as Slim. The fifty-minute three hand one act is followed each evening by a variety of MUSICAL GUESTS Sunday 24 March – The Bernies, Tuesday 26 March – Georgie Jones, Wednesday 27 March – Locked in Lummo, Thursday 28 March – The Polymics, Friday 29 March – Stitcher, Saturday 30 March – Elysae

COWBOY MOUTH plays to the end of the month at Flight Path Theatre, Addison Road Community Centre, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville