“You’re like a disease to me,” complains May (Megan Follows) in one of the many tense moments of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love.

“You know we’re connected. Maybe we’ll always be connected,” asserts Eddie (Stuart Hughes) as yet another lover’s quarrel hits an apex.

Make no mistake--this couple is perpetually screwed!

Sam Shepard’s sexually charged opus takes place in a shabby motel on the barren edge of the Mojave Desert where the doomed lovers battle for absolute powers in their love-hate relationship that’s endured 15 years. Passion and anger ranges into the wee hours until an unspoken secret behind their attraction.

Add in an unknowing small town simpleton (Kevin Bundy) to stir feelings of jealousy and a ghostly paterfamilias presence (Frank Moore) and you have the makings of a solid one-two punch story.

Stuart Hughes’ Eddie is distasteful and gritty while proving the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The actor’s ability to spike the character with obvious control issues works well. But the key to Eddie is Hughes' unwillingness to portray the character as an inherent bad seed, which keeps the audience glued to him from start to finish.

Sizing up Megan Follows presents an extreme challenge in that the general population is used to seeing her with close-ups as a result of her film and TV endeavours. We simply never get to see her enough on stage. However, she’s the most refreshing look to this year’s Soulpepper line-up and looks solid in front of a live audience. For some reason you find yourself routing for Follows’ May more than Hughes’ Eddie.

The production works on a couple of levels thanks to Ted Dykstra’s wise choices. In terms of set design, he opts for an unsightly and somewhat claustrophobic environment equipped with echo chamber effects to make the play feel like a prison. Furthermore, his gut-wrenching style of directing allows a smidgen of comedy to breathe from the script but not enough to break the tension of the piece.

Sam Shepard is one of those playwrights that you either adore immensely and keep a picture of him at your bedside or pass on completely in favour of a root canal. Fool For Love by no means celebrates relationships; the play deconstructs them to expose the filth that often propels it.