It was very strange reviewing Levelland immediately after Sam Shepard's True West. Comedian Rich Hall's first play is, at its best, something that could easily have been peopled by San S's characteristic mid-American misfits.
Hall plays radio Shock Jock, Wayman Tisdale, a Texan who literally lives in his studio. The world has gone bad as an oil crisis means that the USA is in turmoil. This is reflected by panicked calls to the show, mainly from loopy listeners.
Worse is to come for Tisdale, energetically played by the writer. He gets three visitors who turn his cosy, little world upside down.
The first arrival is neurotic young Scrope (Rory Keenan). He wants airtime to explain that he is one of God's chosen. He is hardly unique as there are 144,000 of them out there somewhere.
Scrope also believes that he is being chased by killers and this proves to be the case. His talent for sniffing out oil may not be genuine but is a potential money-maker either way.
David Calvitto, rushing across from Midnight Cowboy to play Demitri, represents the nice side of petty crime, while Mike Wilmot's Guffy is better with violence.
Levelland is a satire on contemporary America that makes some very sharp observations about the way that we live today and suggests that Rich Hall could have a successful second career as a playwright.
Guy Masterson directs well but might have suggested that Hall cut some of the longer speeches to a size at which they do not hamper the flow.