Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West) [Paperback]

Sam Shepard (Author), Richard Gilman (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1984

Brilliant, prolific, uniquely American, Pulitzer prizewinning playwright Sam Separd is a major voice in contemporary theatre. And here are seven of his very best.

"One of the most original, prolific and gifted dramatists at work today."—The New Yorker

"The greatest American playwright of his generation...the most inventive in language and revolutionary in craft, [he] is the writer whose work most accurately maps the interior and exterior landscapes of his society."—New York Magazine

"If plays were put in time capsules, future generations would get a sharp-toothed profile of life in the U.S. in the past decade and a half from the works of Sam Shepard."—Time

"Sam Shepard is the most exciting presence in the movie world and one of the most gifted writers ever to work on the American stage."—Marsha Norman, Pulitzer prizewinning author of ‘Night, Mother.

"One of our best and most challenging playwrights...his plays are a form of exorcism: magical, sometimes surreal rituals that grapple with the demonic forces in the American landscape."—Newsweek

"His plays are stunning in thier originality, defiant and inscrutable."—Esquire

"Sam Shepard is phenomenal..the best practicing American playwright."—The New Republic

Editorial Reviews

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, and 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. Shepard's plays, eleven of which have won Obie Awards, include Buried Child, 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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback (May 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553346113
• ISBN-13: 978-0553346114
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > United States

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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark Comedy at it's best, May 21, 2000

By 

Jonathan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West) (Paperback)

These are the best dark comedy plays I have ever seen. The true west is a work of art. All of these plays are top of the line. Dark comedy at it's best. If you are an actor, or just interested in the arts I suggest this book. You won't find this many well written plays in one book in a long time. Sam Shepard is a true genius.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutally honest americana, February 10, 2002

By 

A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West) (Paperback)

Sam Shepard is an american original. I first encountered his work at the Public theater in NYC in the early to mid-70's. Then having seen Buried Child, i knew I had to read his work. His language is spare, tough and elagaic, like Cormac mcCarthy's novels of the southwest. The best work hee oare the first three plays: True West, Buried Child and Curse of the Starving class.Shepard is a poet of the interior,his convaluted families express despair over hideous personal tagiedies{Buried Child] or their own inability to love{True West]. Shepeard use of language is interesting. It is its strongest when it reflects the rhythm of a place or time,{curse of the Starving Class} and ,for me at least, is most evocative of a place either real or imagined,very much Shepard country.{I saw a young John Malkovich in a Shepard play} Now far better known for his acting{The right stuff, et, al],when Buried child first premiered, he was still a poet/playwrite living out west who refused to fly and who was commisioned by Bob Dylan to write a screenplay for his abortive Rolling Thunder Review movie, Renaldo and Clara...Brilliant,Blistering theatre,that has held up well these 20 years. A True American Master.HIghest possible Recommendation.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too many great plays!, September 20, 2001

By 

Eli (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West) (Paperback)

Simply really well written plays. True West and Curse of the Starving Class engrossed me the most, with True West bieng one of the best plays I have read. The words just flow naturally and the characters are *really* wierd but still consistent and round. Though I have not yet read all eight, it seems that most of his plays in here are very tough to perform. I always like plays with very few characters, or at least few actors, and the only play that really fits that is True West. He is obviously used to writing for film, since sometimes he puts things into his plays that are really hard to actually do on stage. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, but I think that some of these plays are pretty hard to produce.

Still, it makes for an excellent read and I also found it kind of inspiring, since these are really good plays that I felt flowing into my mind rather than just reading them (yes, I *know* that sounds really cheesy...)