(Above: Actors in OCT’s “Buried Child” are (front row) Denise LaCroix, Robert Hirsh, and Jonathan Edwards and (back row) Tony Stirpe, Kelly Oristano, and Leslie Jones)
By Randi Bjornstad
Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child” first appeared onstage in 1978, catapulting the playwright to “stardom” in his field and snapping up the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the next year, as well as an Obie award.
It’s a dark play, a combination of perverse comedic moments offset by an unflinching look at a family full of failed relationships and unrequited hopes.
The characters include an older married couple named Dodge and Halie. He’s a terminally ill alcoholic who spends his days watching television. She’s a nag who has been guilty in the past of incest with one of the couple’s sons and now is involved in an affair with a local minister.
Their oldest son, Ansel, is dead. The others, Tilden and Bradley, both in their 40s, don’t seem to have lives outside the family but are miserably limited within it.
A grandson, Vince, who hasn’t been seen for many years, suddenly shows up with his girlfriend, Shelly, who senses that the family has a deep, dark secret and is determined to discover what it is.
In a sense, all that could be said to reflect the tone of Shepard’s own life. As described on his website, he was the oldest of three children in a family which moved frequently because his alcoholic father was a military man who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. His mother was a teacher.
At some point, the dysfunctional family settled down in California, where Shepard — officially Samuel Shepard Rogers IV — graduated from high school in Duarte in 1961.
During his high school years, he began acting and also writing poetry, as well as working as a stable hand. He attended community college for a year but when a traveling theater troupe came to town, he joined them and toured with them for a year or two before spinning off to take up residence — and playwriting — in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
For the rest of his career, Shepard jockeyed between acting and writing plays, books, essays and memoir. He died of ALS — aka Lou Gehrig’s disease — in 2017, at the age of 73.
OCT’s production of Shepard’s “Buried Child” features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Hirsh, Leslie Jones, Denise LaCroix, Kelly Oristano and Tony Stirpe, plus two actors, Randall Brous and Jonathan Edwards, making their debuts with the theater.
Joseph Gilg directs “Buried Child,” with Amy Dunn as scenic designer, Gabe Carlin in charge of sound, Tim Dunn as properties designer, lighting by Michael A. Peterson and costumes by Heather Kidd. Jennier Sandgathe is production stage manager.
Buried Child
When: 7:30 p.m. on April 6-7, 12-14, 19-21 and 26-28; 2 p.m. on April 15 and 22 (matinees include an after-show “talk back”)
Where: Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway, Eugene
Tickets: $35 on April 6 includes an opening night post-show reception; regular prices $20-$35, $15 for students with valid ID, available online at octheatre.org or at the box office, 541-465-1506; box office hours are 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. to curtain on Saturday, and noon to curtain on Sunday show days
Content advisory: adult language and themes; smoking of herbal cigarettes
