Cowboy Mouth (play)

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Cowboy Mouth is a 1971 play by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith.

The Play is about Cavale and Slim, two absolute messes living in sin together. Unable to move, yet at complete unrest, Slim swings from blaming Cavale for the disaster that is his life to begging her to tell him stories about pop culture figures who had the guts to kill themselves. Cavale is a former mental patient of some kind. She remembers electric shocks and having to wear metal plates around her club foot when she was younger. She also muses about playing the ugly duckling as a child, being forced into the role without even the satisfaction of emerging as a beautiful swan at the end. The two call on the Lobster Man for sustenance and entertainment. It's a play full of dichotomies, and easy swings from one extreme mindset to another. It sheds light on how the American Dream does little more for the individual besides spoil his happiness.