Buried Child - Acting Edition [Paperback]

Sam Shepard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 082221511X | ISBN-13: 978-0822215110 | Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | Edition: Revised

A newly revised edition of an American classic, Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize—winning Buried Child is as fierce and unforgettable as it was when it was first produced more than twenty-five years ago.

A scene of madness greets Vince and his girlfriend as they arrive at the squalid farmhouse of Vince’s hard-drinking grandparents, who seem to have no idea who he is. Nor does his father, Tilden, a hulking former All-American footballer, or his uncle, who has lost one of his legs to a chain saw. Only the memory of an unwanted child, buried in an undisclosed location, can hope to deliver this family

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Shepard is an uncommon playwright and uncommonly gifted.” –The New York Times

“Wildly poetic, full of stage images and utterances replete with insidious suggestiveness.” –New York

“Shepard is one of the most prolific playwrights, and for that matter, certainly one of the most brilliant.” –New York Post --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Sam Shepard is the Pulitzer Prize—winning author of more than forty-five plays. He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection Great Dream of Heaven, and he has also written the story collection Cruising Paradise, two collections of prose pieces, Motel Chronicles and Hawk Moon, and Rolling Thunder Logbook, a diary of Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour. As an actor he has appeared in more than thirty films, including Days of Heaven, Crimes of the Heart, Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief, Snow Falling on Cedars, All the Pretty Horses, Black Hawk Down, and The Notebook. He received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for his performance in The Right Stuff. His screenplay for Paris, Texas won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, and he wrote and directed the film Far North in 1988 and co-wrote and starred in Wim Wenders’ Don’t Come Knocking in 2005. Shepard’s plays, eleven of which have won Obie Awards, include The God of Hell, The Late Henry Moss, Simpatico, Curse of the Starving Class, True West, Fool for Love, and A Lie of the Mind, which won a New York Drama Desk Award. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Shepard received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992, and in 1994 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. He lives in New York. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Revised edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082221511X
• ISBN-13: 978-0822215110
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sam Shepard was born in 1943 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He moved to New York from California just as the off-Broadway theatre scene was emerging. He has written more than forty plays, of which elev en have won 'Obie' awards, besides collections of stories, prose writing and screenplays. His plays include Buried Child, The Late Henry Moss, Simpatico, Curse of the Starving Class, True West, Fool for Love, A Lie of the Mind, and States of Shock. His screenplay for Paris, Texas won the Golden Pa lm Award at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and he directed his own screenplay, Far North, in 1988. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Shepard received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992, and in 1994 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wacky, bizarre and very entertaining!, September 10, 2007

By 

Rizzo (Nowhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Buried Child - Acting Edition (Paperback)

It's clear to see why Buried Child won the 78-79 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play borders on theatre of the absurd with it's illogical circumstances, and bizarre plot. We learn soon that a baby was buried, but we are entertained as the story processes and unfolds through the eyes of this dysfunctional family. The conflict is between the need to reveal the truth, and refusal to speak about the truth. A visitor to the home causes the revealing of the truth.


Dodge is a sickly 70ish year old drinker, smoker and frequently has violent coughing outbursts. Married to Halie, 65 year old, they have 3 boys. Halie spends time (tipsy time) with the church Father.

Tilden, the oldest, shows up after 20 years, spent time in jail and got run out of New Mexico. Tilden was an All-American quarterback or fullback, the family can't remember which. Now he is mixed up in the head and can't take care of himself.

Bradley, they determine isn't very bright; he chopped his leg with a chainsaw. Bradley has serious conflict with Dodge.

And Ansel, the soldier who died in a motel, on his honeymoon with the Catholic Italian girl, the mob. Haley swears he was doomed when he married her. Ansel played basketball and could have made money, could have taken care of Dodge and Halie.

Father Dewis just tries to mediate. For Halie, he would erect a statue of Ansel with a rifle in one hand and a basketball in the other.

Vince, the grandson, Tilden's son arrives after 6 years and nobody recognizes him. He is symbolic of the buried unwanted child.

Shelly, Vince's girlfriend is thrust into this bizarre scenario, and it is she who becomes the focus of the unveiling truth of the child.

The most prominent symbolism in Buried Child is the rain, and how the vegetables in the field have grown. The rain is mentioned a lot, and it serves to be the nuturing of the vegetables, like nuturing the family for the truth.

This play is brilliant, engaging, and very entertaining. The dialogue is real, paces well and there are a few lengthy monologues. Like good literature, it requires a second reading. Don't skip that.......Rizzo

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real and Unreal, January 30, 2000

By 

Susan R Murray - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buried Child - Acting Edition (Paperback)

Buried Child is a story of coming home and coming to terms with the past. Sheppard's use of visual imagery and his mastery of simple, stark, but powerful dialog make this one of the better modern American plays. 5 men, 2 women, one set.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A, June 14, 2009

By 

Lauren Magnussen - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buried Child (Paperback)

With enough symbolism to keep a literary student happily busy for weeks, Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize-winning play throws you into a surreal world grounded in the decay of the American Dream. The family centered in the drama is dysfunctional, to put it mildly, and is a microcosm of the hopes and eventual destruction of those hopes in America. The action plays out like a combination between American Gothic and Frida Kahlo - based in reality, but little bits here and there remind the audience that they are not in a world structured realistically. Shepard has stunning skills in the way he paints pictures with words. The only gripe is that the motivations of Halie, the matriarch of the family, are never fully developed or explained. Perhaps Shepard's intention was to keep emotions and feelings as buried as the title implies.