Buried Child

Written by Sam Shepard

Narrated by Amy Madigan, John Getz, Hale Appleman and 4 more

It's a curious homecoming for Vince, the son nobody seems to remember. Violence is never far from the surface as his unexpected return uncovers a deep, dark secret that triggers catastrophe in Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning Buried Child.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:
Hale Appleman as Vince
Tom Bower as Dodge
John Getz as Father Dewis
Amy Madigan as Halie
Robert Parsons as Tilden
Jeff Perry as Bradley
Madeline Zima as Shelly

Directed by Peter Levin. Recorded before a live audience at the James Bridges Theater at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in December, 2011.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works
• Release date: May 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781580818858

Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard (Fort Sheridan, Illinois, 1942 - Midway, Kentucky, 2017) se convirtió en un mito contemporáneo: polifacético como Boris Vian, legendario como Neal Cassady, amigo y colaborador de los Stones, Patti Smith y Bob Dylan, batería durante años de un grupo de acid rock, actor en películas como Días del cielo y Elegidos para la gloria, coguionista de Zabriskie Point y Paris, Texas, casado con Jessica Lange durante casi treinta años... y, como remate, autor, galardonado con el Pulitzer y el Obie, de más de cuarenta obras teatrales, por las que se le ha llamado el sucesor de Tennessee Williams. En Anagrama ha publicado la novela Espía de la primera persona y Yo por dentro, los libros de relatos Cruzando el paraíso y El gran sueño del paraíso, la obra teatral Locos de amor, los volúmenes misceláneos Luna Halcón, Crónicas de motel y Estados de shock. Al norte. Lengua silenciosa y el libro de crónicas Rolling Thunder: con Bob Dylan en la carretera. Fotografía © Patti Smith

Reviews for Buried Child

[danielstj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a very solid family drama that completely explored the unit that this assemblage of characters were functioning in. I viewed it, essentially, as an in-depth character study and I was rewarded in kind. Overall, there are some parts where it waves, ever so slightly, but the foundations are strong and push this play towards its conclusion.3.75 stars.

[deckla_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite plays. A portrait of the archetypal dysfunctional midwestern American family, in all its bizarre barbarity. The part with the corn and carrots works beautifully on stage.

[ctkjs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A play that deals with the idea of the family and the expectations and frustrations between its members. Dark and sobering. It address familiar issues but turned up to 11.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Can you say dysfunctional? Yet another example of dramatic writing that pounds you in the face. Effective for what it is, but I prefer a degree of subtlety in character and storytelling. All of the characters were incredibly unlikable. I just can't bring myself to care about them or their situation. The buried child was the lucky one to get away from these creeps.

[dinoreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent play, would have been better without the vegetable harvest and dead child being pushed too hard.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wish Miguel Mota had decided to assign us this instead of True West. Not only because it's better (which, no disrespect to True West, it is), but because it's deeper and richer and puts out more of a sense of existing in a real world. Vince and Shelly walk into this house that joy forgot and sure, everything's going to go insane and Theatre-of-the-Absurd later on, but for the moment, they are emisaries of a real world of grass and light and era-specific cultural references. You can read her as Lydia Lunch or as Patti LaBelle or as Stevie Nicks.

The second thing is that we already read Pinter's The Homecoming, and as far as I can see this is just a lusher, creepier, more interesting take on the same themes: familial hatred; psychosis; sexual betrayal; the betrayal of one's self by one's emotions; basically what the Scientologists would sum up as "bloodsexcrime." But where the Pinter is like a horrible day in a horrible life, this one floats--creepy, ugly, but oneiric. Ludic? Because of the greater feminine presence, with Shelly and Halie? How awful is that?

And hey, the Bradley character is a bracing reminder that we haven't gotten over all our quiet fears about the twisted and damaged, haven't completely separated and sanitized them into the (laudable) recognition of the true bravery and humanity of the disabled. God, sometimes all this play wants is a lobotomy dude in the corner. Tilden?

I read people talking about the breakdown of the American Dream in connection with this story and I think fuck off. The decay of the traditional family? The mortgaging of the future to pay for the present? These are universal human processes and I am so sick of fucking America. Anyway, my students would have gotten a lot out of it. Maybe I'll bring in a passage for to discuss. Also, on stage, this could be devastating. I smell Pulitzer!