CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS

by Sam Shepard

University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA
November, 2012

A production of Sam Shepard’s dark comedy about an American family’s struggle to stay afloat. Staged within the skeletal structure of the Tate family’s home, the audience was presented with an ominous lens through which to view the decomposition of the family itself. Shepard’s harrowing story of loss and poverty was deepened through a physical exploration of excess and emptiness. Instead of having the actors outside of the nuclear family physically enter, audio recordings of their lines were played from speakers above the stage. This created a feeling of the other characters- which include policemen, a greedy bar owner, and a man trying to sell the house- literally invading the family’s space. In the absence of their physical bodies, the audience could only perceive them the way the characters did: as existential threats to their family, their voices echoing hollowly through the desolate home.

Throughout the play waste and possessions mixed together, cluttering the stage. Groceries that were thrown from the fridge in a fit of the son’s anger remained. Unfolded laundry that was pushed aside by the father in a drunken stupor rendered the kitchen table unusable. The carcass of a dead lamb lay in the center of the kitchen, it’s blood seeping from within a plastic garbage bag. This intermixing of food, belongings, and refuse altered the playing space for the characters, forcing them to confront their own complicated, messy circumstances. The final image of the play was one of mother and son, staring at the carcass of a dead lamb, surrounded by the physical decay of their family.