Buried Child
by Sam Shepard

Broadway Off-Broadway West End
Buried Child Book Cover
Buried Child Cover

Highlights

120 mins 1970s Role(s) for Senior Actor(s) Interior Set Period Costumes

Awards & Recognition

Lucille Lortel Award Pulitzer Prize Tony Award

Winner! 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Nominee: Five 1996 Tony Awards, including Best Play Nominee: Two 2016 Lucille Lortel Awards

Synopsis

In a decaying farmhouse in rural Illinois, a family filled with suppressed violence and an unease born of deep-seated unhappiness confront their ghosts in this haunting examination of the disintegration of the American Dream.

At the center of the family is a ranting alcoholic grandfather, a sanctimonious grandmother who goes on drinking bouts with the local minister, and their sons, Tilden, an All-American footballer now a hulking idiot, and Bradley, who has lost one leg to a chain saw.

Into their midst comes Vince, a grandson none of them recognizes or remembers, and his girlfriend, Shelly, who cannot comprehend the madness to which she is suddenly introduced.

The family harbors a dark secret that will leave audiences speechless after the curtain falls on this poetic drama.

Press Reviews

"Mr. Shepard is an uncommon playwright and uncommonly gifted."

— The New York Times

Characters

Character
Halie

Dodge’s wife; mid-sixties.

Tilden

Their oldest son.

Bradley

Their next oldest son, an amputee.

Vince

Tilden’s son.

Shelley

Vince’s girlfriend.

Father Dewis

A Protestant minister.

Dodge

In his seventies.

Videos

Buried Child – Broadway Trailer

Publication

ISBN-13 9780822215110
ISBN-10 082221511X

Buried Child is a play written by Sam Shepard and published by Dramatists Play Service .

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Rating

3.9

210 ratings · 351 reviews

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Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur & Professional
Fee: Minimum Fee: $130 per performance

Restrictions: Major Markets Plus (US) / Standard Plus Add'l Postcodes (UK)

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