Buried Child (1978), a play by Sam Shepard. [Theatre de Lys, 152 perf.; Pulitzer Prize.] After several years in Los Angeles, Vince (Christopher McCann) returns to the Illinois farm of his grandparents, bringing with him his saxophone, his girl Shelley (Mary McDonnell), and a parcel of fond memories and hopes. He is quickly disillusioned. His grandmother, Hallie (Jacqueline Brooks), preaches morality but spends her evenings on the town with the local priest, Father Dewis (Bill Wiley). His dying, drunken grandfather, Dodge (Richard Hamilton), has murdered an unwanted child and wails, “I'm descended from a long line of corpses and there's not a living soul behind me.” Vince must also confront his crazed father, Tilden (Tom Noonan), and brutal, crippled uncle, Bradley (Jay Sanders). The visit leaves Vince to work out a new life in a spiritually bankrupt world. Originally produced by San Francisco's Magic Theatre, the play was mounted Off Off Broadway before this Off‐Broadway engagement began. A slightly revised version of the play arrived on Broadway in 1996 and met with success.
Buried Child
| American Theater Guide: Buried Child |
| Notes on Drama: Buried Child |
Contents: Plot Summary Characters Themes Style Critical Overview Criticism Sources Further Reading |
Sam Shepard 1978
After more than a decade as Off-Broadway’s most successful counter-culture playwright, Sam Shepard achieved national fame and attention with his 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning family drama, Buried Child. The play is a macabre look at an American Midwestern family with a dark, terrible secret: Years ago, Tilden, the eldest of three sons belonging to Dodge and Halie, committed an act of incest with his mother. She bore his child, a baby boy, which Dodge drowned and buried in the field behind their farmhouse.
The act destroyed the family. Dodge stopped planting crops in his fields and took to smoking, drinking, and watching television from a lumpy old sofa. Halie, apparently seeking salvation, turned to religion with fervor. She spouts Chritian platitudes and cavorts with the hypocritical Father Dewis. Tilden went insane with guilt and grief, spent time in jail in New Mexico, and has only recently returned to the farmstead, perhaps to set everything right. The secret is drawn out into the light of day, and the family curse apparently lifted, with the arrival of Vince, Tilden’s estranged son, and his girlfriend, Shelly.
With its lower-class, sometimes humorous, recognizable characters and dialogue, Buried Child resembles the mid-century American realism and grotesquerie of Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) or Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire). However, its roots in ritual and its approach to monumental, timeless themes of human suffering — incest, murder, deceit, and rebirth — resemble the destruction wreaked by the heroes of Greek tragedy. The play contains many of Shepard’s favorite motifs: a quirky, often frightening, family of antagonists contained in a claustrophobic farmhouse somewhere in the great American Midwest.
Reviews of the play’s New York premiere at the Theater for the New City on October 19, 1978, were mainly complimentary and congratulatory. Critics who had followed his ten-year career Off-Broadway were happy for Shepard’s mainstream success, while mainstream critics who were unfamiliar with the playwright were pleased with the new discovery. Even critics who weren’t quite sure what it was they had found in Buried Child assured their readers that they liked the play. In the Nation, Harold Clurman wrote, “What strikes the ear and eye is comic, occasionally hilarious behavior and speech at which one laughs while remaining slightly puzzled and dismayed (if not resentful), and perhaps indefinably saddened. Yet there is a swing to it all, a vagrant freedom, a tattered song. Something is coming to an end, yet on the other side of disaster there is hope. From the bottom there is nowhere to go but up.”
Shepard may have felt the same way. Whether he sought it or not, Buried Child marked a turning point in his career. With its success, he found his plays in demand in New York and across the country, and during the next ten years he created commercial successes like True West, Fool for Love, and A Lie of the Mind that found their way to Broadway and film. In 1995, Shepard rewrote Buried Child (the original director made changes to the play that went against the playwright’s intentions). The new, author-approved version premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago before transferring to Broadway in April, 1996. In both cities, the play was hailed as a comical and insightful presentation of the disintegrating American dream.
| Wikipedia: Buried Child |
| Buried Child | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Sam Shepard |
| Characters | Bradley Dodge Tilden Father Dewis Shelly Halie Vince |
| Date premiered | 27 June 1978 |
| Place premiered | Magic Theatre San Francisco, California |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | a farm house in Illinois, 1978 |
| IBDB profile | |
Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard first presented in 1978. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright. Buried Child is a piece of theater which depicts the fragmentation of the American nuclear family in a context of disappointment and disillusionment with American mythology and the American dream, the 1970s rural economic slowdown and the breakdown of traditional family structures and values.
Contents |
Plot Summary
- Characters
- Dodge - in his seventies
- Halie - Dodge's wife; mid-sixties
- Tilden - Their oldest son
- Bradley - Their next-oldest son, an amputee
- Vince - Tilden's son
- Shelly - Vince's girlfriend
- Father Dewis - a Protestant minister
Context and Thematic Concerns
Disappointment and disillusionment with American Mythology and the American Dream
- The character of Ansel- He is the son which Halie idolizes as an All-American hero despite his death due to suspicious circumstances in a motel room. Halie fantasises about his potential to be a Hero, to be an All-American star basketball player, reflecting the American hope in the youth. Yet his death and subsequent denouncement reflects the disappointment and disillusionment which many people experienced when they realised the actuality of the American circumstance.
- The two sons (Tilden and Bradley) both failed their parents' expectation- Both are expected to take over the farm or at least care for the parents in their old age, thus fulfilling the American mythology of the next generation taking over from the last. However both sons are handicapped – Tilden emotionally and Bradley physically. They are unable to care for their parents and thus unable to carry out the American Dream.
- The failure of the farm and the family as whole- In failing to make the farm successful (Dodge has not planted anything for a number of years) Dodge has failed to fulfill his American Dream. He thus sits and decays in the living room, manifesting his disappointment and disillusionment through his physical immobility.
- When Shelley arrives she outlines what the ideal American farm house should be, the reality which greets her is very different. This reflects the disparity between reality and the fantasy, embodied in the American Dream, of American life.
1970s economic slowdown
- The house itself is run down, reflecting the poverty of American farms.
- Nothing has been planted in the fields.
Breakdown of traditional family structures and values
- Dodge the ineffectual patriarch is meant to be the breadwinner and ethical guardian of the family. Instead he takes on the role of a sardonic alcoholic who is bullied by his wife and children, and is furthermore disempowered through their actions. His character reflects the failed patriarchs in America who have failed to create the family environments idealised in the American Dream.
- The act of incest and the resultant murder are indicative of a breakdown in the ethical rigidity which characterises the typical American family.
- The character of Father Dewis, adulterous and unauthoritative, fails to fulfill the role of moral guardian assigned to him by society and thus reflects the breakdown of morality and ethics within America.
Shepard's intention
Shepard's intention was to create a narrative which communicated and reflected the frustrations of American people but at the same time was engaging and entertaining. Set in a context which is easily recognisable, the American farming family, and centered around issues which are universal, the disillusionment with the American dream and the traditional patriarch, Buried Child reflects the universal frustrations of American people. The postmodern style which Shepard uses incorporates surrealism and symbolism in the realistic framework of a family drama. This platform allows for engaging visceral theatre. Shepard is able to create images in the imaginations of people through the use of surrealism and symbolism, evoke and harness the experiences of his audience through its postmodern nature and keep the audience comfortable in the trappings of realism.
Style
Buried Child incorporates many postmodern elements such as the mixing of genres, the deconstruction of a grand narrative, and the use of pastiche and layering. The use of humour is also an essential postmodern element.
Mixing of genres
Buried Child is laid in the framework of realism; the play is essentially a family drama. However, added into the realistic framework are distinct elements of surrealism and symbolism. The three-act structure, the immediate time frame and the setting of the play in reality give it an overall realistic appearance. Yet the use of symbols such as the corn and the rain give the play a symbolist element while the fragmented characterisation and actions like the multiple burials of Dodge are somewhat surreal or dreamlike. The humour is also an essential element of the style, giving the play sardonic, black and even at times slapstick elements. All these stylistic elements combine to give the play an overall postmodern feel.
Character summaries
Dodge:
- Aging dysfunctional patriarch of the family; in his 70s
- Is an alcoholic
- Is dying
- Has been emasculated by his son and the infertility of his fields
- Is ashamed of Halie's conceiving the child and is ashamed of killing it
- Sits and watches television and drinks
Tilden:
- Lost son, he has no purpose, no direction in his life
- Had sex with his mother
- Is confused/ashamed/embarrassed about the child and its death
- Is bullied by the other characters
- Brings into house crops from the field in the backyard
Bradley:
- Aggressive brother
- Lost his leg in a chainsaw accident
- Is emasculated by the removal of his leg
Halie:
- The wife and mother in the family; in her mid-60s.
- Nags Dodge
- Has sex with her son and gives birth to her grandson/son
- Abandons the family to socialise with Dewis and revel in past
- Hero-worships the images of her lost son
Vince:
- Tilden's son
- Reclaims possession of the house
- No one recognizes him when he arrives
Shellie
- Vince's girlfriend
- Reluctant to be at Vince's grandparent's house
- Determined to uncover the family secret
- Utterly shaken at what she finds
- Skeptical of family relations
Father Dewis
- Protestant priest
- Enjoys drinking and socializing with women
- Carrying on a not-so secret affair with Halie
Performance history
Buried Child premiered at The Magic Theatre in San Francisco on 27 June 1978, directed by Robert Woodruff. Its New York premiere was at Theater for the New City in New York City on October 19, 1978.[1] Theatre critic Harold Clurman wrote, in The Nation, "What strikes the ear and eye is comic, occasionally hilarious behavior and speech at which one laughs while remaining slightly puzzled and dismayed (if not resentful), and perhaps indefinably saddened. Yet there is a swing to it all, a vagrant freedom, a tattered song." It transferred to Theatre de Lys, now the Lucille Lortel Theatre, where it became the first Off-Off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1979.
The show was revived for a two-month run on Broadway in 1996 following a production at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. The production, directed by Gary Sinise at the Brooks Atkinson Theater, was nominated for five Tony Awards but did not win any. The script for the production had been reworked by Shepard, allegedly fixing edits that a previous director had made to the text without Shepard's authorization.[citation needed]
- Magic Theatre Cast
- Dodge - Joseph Gistirak
- Halie - Catherine Willis
- Tilden - Dennis Ludlow
- Bradley - William M. Carr
- Shelly - Betsy Scott
- Vince - Barry Lane
- Father Dewis - RJ Frank
- New York Premiere Cast
- Dodge - Richard Hamilton
- Halie - Jacqueline Brookes
- Tilden - Tom Noonan
- Bradley - Jay O. Sanders
- Shelly - Mary McDonnell
- Vince - Christopher McCann
- Father Dewis - Bill Wiley
References
- ^ Richard Eder (1978-11-07). "Reviewed: Buried Child". The New York Times. http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=FC77E7DF1738E632F25754C0A9679D946990D6CF. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
Further reading
- Shepard, Sam (1984). Seven Plays. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0553346113.
- Shepard, Sam (1997). Buried Child. New York: Dramatist's Play Service. ISBN 082221511X.
External links
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Shepard, Sam (American playwright) |
| Buried Child (Sources) (play) |
| Buried Child (Critical Overview) (play) |
 | Financial help to bury your child? |
| Owing to her diminutive size Was Edith Piaf buried in a Childs casket? |
| The past poses as a motif in Sam Shepards Buried Child .Elaborate.? |
Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Notes on Drama. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Buried Child". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Shepard, Sam (American playwright)
- Buried Child (Sources) (play)
- Buried Child (Critical Overview) (play)
- Sam Shepard: Stalking Himself (1997 Language & Literature Film)
- Buried Child (Style) (play)
- Buried Child (Criticism) (play)
- Lucille Lortel (American Theater)
- Magic Theatre, Inc. (American Theater)
- Lois Smith (American theater)
- William Russ (Actor, Drama/Comedy)
- Buried Child (Themes) (play)
- True West (Author Biography) (play)
- Buried Child (Author Biography) (play)
- True West (play)
