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Curse of the Starving Class
Author(s):
Sam Shepard
The setting is a farmhouse somewhere in the American West, inhabited by a family who have enough to eat, but not enough more to satisfy the other hungers which bedevil them. The father is a drunk; the mother a frowzy slattern; the daughter precocious beyond her years; and the son a deranged idealist who wants something better but has no clear idea of how to attain it. The action is filled with changes and counter-changes as the family decides to sell the house to raise money; the mother talks of running off to Europe or Mexico, but ends up asleep on the kitchen table; the father sobers up and tries to take control; the daughter is blown up in the family car; and the son is brutalized and bloodied by the evil forces besetting them. In the end of the play its people become a metaphor for the underside of American life--the benighted innocents forever pursuing a diminished dream, and the illusion of fulfillment which remains ever beyond their reach.
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Genre(s): | Drama
| Time Period(s): | Not Available | Play Type: | Play | Runtime: | Not Available | Acts: | Not Available | Set Complexity: | Not Available | Set Information: | Not Available | Year First Published: | Not Available | Total Characters: | 9 | Male Characters: | 7 | Female Characters: | 2 | Androgynous Characters: | Not Available | Minimum Cast: | Not Available | Maximum Cast: | Not Available | Cost: | FEE: $50 per performance Royalty/cost information prone to change. Please check with the publisher for the most accurate information. | Publisher: | Dramatists Play Service Click on the publisher's name above for additional information, including updated prices. | ISBN: | Not Available |
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