Sam Shepard
was renowned as one of America's most accomplished playwrights well
before he gained celebrity as a film star. No native dramatist since
O'Neill has probed so deeply the core of American pop mythology and
set it on a collision course with the realities of American life. Buried
Child explores the inner tensions of a rural existence, father-son
relationships, and the place women hold in an increasingly ambiguous
domestic atmosphere. Starkly poetic, humorous, and mysterious, Buried
Child is a vision of a dysfunctional family transformed into
a symbol of America's loss of innocence. The work earned its author
a Pulitzer Prize in 1979.
Synopsis: Vince arrives unannounced
at the Illinois farmhouse of his grandparents Dodge and Halie after
six years of separation from his family. He has brought his girlfriend
Shelly to meet them. But his family proves to be a bizarre group who
barely know who he is. In trying to make sense of the situation, Shelly
uncovers the deeply buried family secrets that have destroyed these
people's lives.
