Riding the Bull is a rollicking farce. GL, a Texas rodeo clown who is extremely religious, devoted to his mother, and has too large a head, finds himself sinning, against his better judgment, with the fattest woman in the town. Every time the obese woman, Lyza, climaxes during their "sin," she has a revelation and throws out the name of someone riding a bull in the rodeo. Although Lyza is not herself religious, she claims God is giving her these names in order to convince GL to use them to bet on and become rich. Although GL has trouble accepting the idea of betting at first, due to his religiosity, he eventually comes around. And soon, indeed, they become very rich. Meanwhile, GL's mother is obsessed with Elvis. Not the young Elvis, or even just the fat Elvis, but the old Elvis. Once GL becomes rich, his greatest scheme is to go in search of an Elvis impersonator who can pretend to be the old Elvis. But what he and Lyza find, instead, is the real Elvis. So GL and Lyza bring the real Elvis back to Texas and GL pays him to have sex with GL's mother.
Now that his mother is sleeping with Elvis, and he himself is sleeping with a woman who is making him rich, things seem to be going just swell for GL, until Lyza has a true vision of God. This leads her to become religious herself, and to reevaluate her values. Although she loves GL, she believes he is having sex with her only because of the money they are able to make together. She closes up her legs for good. This only makes GL desperate.
Schulenberg is a talented writer with a bright future ahead of him. The actors were both intensely believable as GL and Lyza, especially Will Ditterline who was especially affective as GL. And kudos go to Kelly O'Donnell for her fine directing. Riding the Bull is a play worth seeing.
