Mystery, Satire, Fantasy, Parody, Comedic, Horrific

"Imago’s remounting rescues a thrilling thoroughbred of a work sadly stabled for far too long." The Oregonian  

Cody (Joe Cullen - Otto in Design for Living), a Wyoming cowboy, has the lucrative gift of dreaming the winners of horse races. When Fingers (Diane Slamp - Herodias in Salome) and her gang of mobsters discover Cody, the somnolence psychic, they kidnap him and shackle him in a ramshackled motel room (location unknown). Here, in these smashed-up quarters, Cody is shackled to a bed, where he dreams winner after winner, making the mobsters millions until Cody becomes dream-locked in a fog for weeks, useless at his abilities to pick the right horse. Psychically worthless and with the mob losing money, Cody is verbally attacked by Santee (Sean Lujan - Ernest in Design for Living), one of his motel captors, saying “I’ll have to hand it to Mr. Artistic, once upon a time he had some class.” This is one of the many not-so-subtle clues Shepard skillfully tosses in to unveil a subterranean view of the artist's process and artistic exploitation. Shepard's folly, poetry and dark humor in Geography of a Horse Dreamer (1974) seems to be a riff off his rock-music battle for stardom in his renowned work A Tooth of Crime (1972), where Shepard fuses rock and roll, drugs and crime to populate a world of a fireball-music gang leader Hoss who is crazed about fame. These fantasy universes are overflowing with the passion and angst for art, love for the American West and Shepard's disillusionment with the American Dream.

American Premiere at Yale 1974
“The tale of Cody's mad ride through the night is the comic geography of the new Shepard. It is a high-spirited comedy-melodrama that lashes away at profiteers, bettors and brainwashers.”
The New York Times

New York Premiere at the Manhattan Theatre 1975
“Edged with mystery, satire, fantasy, parody, and tongue-not-quite-in-cheek nostalgia for the Old West and for old Westerns. In other words, we are in Shepard country - a poet's country. There is much action; there is a lot of comedy and suffering, too; and many thoughts - witty and serious - are expressed.”
New York Magazine

Jerry Mouawad (A Streetcar Named Desire, Salome, Design for Living) directs and brings together the best of Imago collaborators: Alex Meyer (The Seafarer) designs Scenic, Myrrh Larsen (My Bedroom is an Installation) designs Sound, Laura Helgeson (Design for Living) designs Costumes, Jim Peerenboom (A Streetcar Named Desire) is Master of Props and Furniture.

The Rest of the Cast
Duffy Epstein, a veteran of Portland stages, makes his Imago debut as the terrifying psychic scientist The Doctor. Liam Gouldsbrough (A Streetcar Named Desire) is the naive bandit Beaujo. John Berendzen (Hit Me in the Stomach) plays the other-worldly Waiter. Making his Imago debut is Ryan King as the dangerous and vengeful brother of Cody, Jasper. 

From Sam Shepard, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor, screenwriter, musician, and "renaissance man,” comes one of his early gems from the 1970s, GEOGRAPHY OF A HORSE DREAMER.

TICKETS
Recommended 16 and older. There are fake weapons (wooden and plastic) used in the show with simulated gun fire sound.

Read more on the play:
wikipedia