Review: ‘Bohemian Cowboy’ at Elephant Lab Theater

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A cenotaph is a monument erected to a person whose remains are elsewhere. In his one-man show, “Bohemian Cowboy” at the Elephant Lab Theater, Raymond King Shurtz constructs a theatrical cenotaph to his father, Raymond Dean Shurtz, that is as loving as it is unstintingly candid.

In this case, a cenotaph must suffice as memorial. In November 2005, the elder Shurtz parked beside the road and wandered off into the Valley of Fire, a tractless desert some 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. He is presumed dead, but his remains have never been found. “Cowboy” charts Shurtz’s father’s final footsteps, and Shurtz’s own faltering journey toward acceptance.

Shurtz repeatedly refers to his father as a “disappearing specialist.” Cowboy, carpenter and gifted singer, Shurtz’s dad was also a hard-drinking roustabout whose best advice to his son was “Always have a good sleeping bag and a jacket” –- advice that, in the end, did not avail him. And although cancer and dwindling mental powers reduced his stories to a repetitive circularity in his final days, Shurtz was also a born storyteller who could spin a yarn with the best of them.

Like father like son. Tormented by a tale interrupted, the storyteller son, also a talented singer/guitarist, weaves a campfire ghost story with a Bergman-esque overlay. At times, Shurtz relies on specific reminiscences of Proustian exactitude. Most frequently, he ventures into a fantastic dreamscape, accompanied by such traveling companions as Jesus and Hamlet, who have their own lessons to impart.

Matt Maenpaa’s stark set and lighting and Mauricio Yazigi’s original music and sound evoke an Old West that exists only in memory. Under the sensitive direction of Kurt Brungardt, Shurtz’s drama functions as both intensely personal family legacy and surreal picaresque.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Bohemian Cowboy,” Elephant Lab Theater, 6324 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. Ends March 21. (No performances March 13-14.) $15. (323) 960-7744. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.