Preview Thoughts on Curse of the Starving Class

I don't know why I'm having such a mental block over writing about seeing the revival of Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class.  I saw the revival at my favorite spot, Signature Theatre, earlier this week and I've been completely unable to put any words to (virtual) paper.  I enjoyed myself, I enjoyed the play; I don't know.  Let's see if I can figure anything out...

Backstory, because, hello, it's me:  I played the daughter, Emma, in college and I haven't seen a production since.  So I feel as if I have a relationship with this play, even though it's been over 30 years since I was in it.  That experience, though, was really powerful.  Emma has a couple of monologues in the first act which are directed into the refrigerator (a vital set piece for this play) and one night, I completely sort of lost myself in that monologue.  I was so thoroughly inside the character that I lost myself - that had never happened to me before and it terrified me.  It actually was the beginning of the end of my acting career, I think, because my performances after that were much too careful.  I was afraid of experiencing that complete loss of self again, because I didn't know how to separate the acting from the living.  I mean, I don't think the world stopped turning because I stopped pursuing acting as a career, but I am sorry I wasn't braver then.  I've acted since then and I think I maintain the balance now pretty well, but then...I let fear decide.  Which is sad.  Maybe that's why I'm feeling a distance from the production I saw last Tuesday.  Or at least a distance from talking about it.

a bunch of clippings on Shepard in the Signature lobby

Anyway, you all know I love Sam Shepard (although the revival of True West turned me way off last fall) and I was excited to see that Signature was doing Curse of the Starving Class this season - this one is actually pretty timely at the moment, with the talk about money and invisible money, and buying land when you can't.  The family's version of the American dream is pretty much taken advantage of by the people with money. It's pretty timeless. This portrait of a family that lives on the extremes is still powerful and wackadoodle and hard to describe.


This production is directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Terry Kinney, who proves to be a fantastic interpreter of Shepard.  He really gets the surrealistic, realistic and symbolic pieces in the play and treats them all rather evenhandedly.  I thought the opening image was amazing and simply perfection (I guess if you'd rather not have spoilers, you should stop reading now):  we're listening to music, there's a spotlight on that refrigerator, then suddenly there are extremely loud noises of destruction and the set actually pulls apart from itself - the walls tear apart, the kitchen equipment separates, and there is timber and plaster everywhere.  Then we start the play.  I think this sets up the feeling of being off-kilter throughout the play beautifully - I don't think we're ever meant to know if what is happening is truly happening; is this real or is it fantasy?  The monologues describing what happened the night before sort of explain the destruction but sort of don't.  It's a great start.  And when people enter and exit from the kitchen, they sort of walk into blackness, which was also very evocative.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Every horrible thing that happens to this dysfunctional family is played to the hilt; I enjoyed the boldness of the performers (well, I was at first unsure of the actress playing the mother, but once I caught on to what she was up to, I enjoyed her performance), most especially the actress playing Emma; I thought she really captured the hunger for escape and inability to break free that all of the characters had, but her performance, although heightened, also seemed more natural, if that makes sense.  Sometimes, I did feel as if the other cast members were 'acting', but I didn't get that sense from her.  It was interesting to feel my brain saying the lines (from over 30 years ago!) along with her at times, although I was a much different type than this actress.  Anyway.

The play is still mordantly funny and maybe vaguely icky in places, purposefully, I think.  There was a lot of nervous laughter throughout.  Of course, the audience was really enchanted with the live lamb, who was super-cute, but it unwittingly stole focus (although this particular crowd didn't seem to have much focus to begin with, but I digress) at times.  All in all, I recommend seeing Curse of the Starving Class.  I had a good time reliving my past and reminding myself of what a unique and amazing genius playwright Sam Shepard was, but I'm still unsure why this has been such a hard post to finish.  Maybe I'm still too close to it after all these years...