When it comes to the notion of cowboys, it is usually about its masculinity and adaptability. Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain broke the convention of traditional cowboy masculinity with a highly supercharged adaptability and survival story. Somehow, Les Solomon’s God’s Cowboy radiates a similar yet a seemingly different aura during its just over 2 hours’ run time.
Simply put, God’s Cowboy is about someone who puts on a cowboy persona to mask who he is. He created something everyone wants but, in the process, forgot who he was after adapting and disappearing into this persona that he created. But a persona without a strong foundation is easily triggered and a veil that is paper thin can be easily shredded. As his life collided with a pair of innocent and happy go lucky siblings, holding on to the persona or living true to himself become a daily struggle. And every choice he made has an impact not only on himself but everyone around him too.
As a production with a small cast, God’s Cowboy managed to provide almost equal stage time for most of the cast members. Demetrius, played by Tate Wilkinson Alexander, was definitely the fourth leg to this ‘production within a production’ show. However, at times, he was responsible for creating the tension and catalyst required for the plot to move forward. But for most of the part the spotlight was on the three leads. Nathaniel Savy and Sophia Laurantus as the twin siblings who got their lives tangled with the cowboy played by Max Fernandez, represented the positive energy of the play. Whether it was bantering, or dancing around (which Nathaniel did a particularly good job in one of the scenes), they provided the hopeful and innocent angles to the narrative, as compared to Max’s cowboy, who was quite obviously hiding something under that glorious cowboy persona. Nathaniel and Sophia were suited for the roles, and they played them with the right amount of energy without making their characters annoying (yeah, I sometimes got annoyed by ridiculously positive characters, just me). As for Max, I do feel that his character shines in the second half more as I felt that there aren’t much for that character to do apart from keeping up with a visage that, for me, as an audience member just want it to come down already.
Speaking of the second half, I do think I was more hooked in the second half of the show as most of the meaty stuff were presented in this half. The set up and the cliffhanger in the first half of the show was a bit too predictable for me personally as the hints were already everywhere, and that kind of took out the suspense for me. But that second half, it was intriguing that you just can’t help but got drawn into it.
What impressed me most with the God’s Cowboy was that, as a small production with a small cast and a small space to play around with, you can see that the actors were very comfortable with the space and how to make the best use of the stage. That partly was the credit of the production crew of course, but when you feel that the actors are comfortable with the space itself, it becomes more believable that this is the world they are living in. I particularly liked that on some occasions when props accidentally fell off or moved because of the actions on stage, the actors addressed them as it was their home. I heard that they have a long rehearsal period, and it shows.
In all I did enjoy God’s Cowboy, although personally I did hope that certain information about the characters and the story could be provided via some proper dialogues instead of fourth wall breaking or audience engagement. While the audience engagement was still manageable, the fourth wall breaking sometimes broke my engagement with the story and I felt that they are trying a bit too much holding the audience’s hands. That’s just my personal preference. Lastly, without spoiling the ending, I personally would prefer the story to have ended on Daniel’s terms (Max’s cowboy), but then again, that’s just my personal preference.
For a modern play, a 2-hour 10 minutes run time with a 15-minute intermission is a long night. However, I had never felt the need to check my time throughout, and I think that’s a good sign.
God’s Cowboy is now playing at the Flight Path Theatre till 21 February 2026. More details can be found here.
