(left to right) David Warshofsky and Gilles Geary
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus
It
is doubtful whether there will be a more spectacularly stunning opening minute
for any play this season....and the new season has barely begun. Sam Shepard's “The
Curse of the Starving Class” is gritty, grungy and metaphoric. It doesn’t take
long to get into the playwright’s mindset the minute our eyes take in the setting:
a primitive barely functional kitchen of a ramshackle home somewhere in the
southeast. Even before a word is spoken, you can feel the dominating presence, the
power of a playwright whose vision and perspective is a reality gone amuck.
Shepard
is one of the celebrants in this Signature Theatre season. The ground-breaking “Curse...”
is a trenchant mix of the darkly satirical and absurdly logical and shares a
kinship with his other family-centered Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Buried
Child” and also “True West.” Shepard’s economically as much as emotionally ravaged
characters are if nothing else a sight to behold. In this intense production under
the excellent direction of Terry Kinney, the company adheres to the play’s
purpose to excite and shamelessly amuse us.
First
produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1978, “Curse...” has since made
periodic visits. In “Curse...” we get to see a vision of American life both as
a horrifying reality and as an illuminated allegory. There is still no
contemporary playwright who can touch Shepard’s talent to inject unrelenting
grimness with so much blistering humor.
Shoveling
down the last rash of bacon, the mother pays scant attention to her daughter
who is raving hysterically over the slaughter of her pet chicken. Even before
the belligerent alcoholic father returns home, we are being prepared, through
the means of soliloquy and riveting conversation for a play in which tension
for better or worse is unrelenting.
Whether
the symbolism or socio-political messages are totally clear is of less importance
than the provocation. We watch a near poverty stricken family being swindled,
cheated and abused first, by an unscrupulous real estate agent then a murderous
pair of gangsters is presumably deemed to be like watching the disintegration
of the working class and the rape of America. But the true blessing of “Curse...” is Shepard’s way of being exhilarating in the midst of all
the pain and tragedy set before us.
Maggie
Siff as the mother, Lizzy Declement, as the daughter, Gilles Geary as the son, David
Warshofsky as the father and a terrific supporting cast including Flora Diaz,
Esau Pritchett and Andrew Rothenberg contribute splendidly to the kind ensemble
performing that Shepard’s plays demand. Julian Crouch’s awesome set design will
be something to be remembered next award season as will the superb lighting
designed by Natasha Katz.
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