Heartless
by Sam Shepard

Name: Heartless
Brand: Sam Shepard
SKU: 9780822232223
Rating: 3.16 (83 reviews)

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

Unit Set/Multiple SettingsAmerican Mystery

What readers are saying

Readers have mixed feelings about the play, finding it well-written yet often meandering. While some appreciate the thought-provoking themes and character dialogues, others feel that certain elements detract from the overall coherence, making it less accessible, especially as an introduction to Sam Shepard's work.

Thought-provoking themesStrong character dialoguesMeaningful examination of family dynamicsMeandering structureSome elements feel disconnected

Synopsis

Sally lives with her mysterious family in a cavernous home overlooking Los Angeles.

When a visitor arrives, Sally’s dark secrets—and the secrets of those around her—threaten to come to light.

ThemesAmerican literature

Press Reviews

"This is not a play for people who need answers more than questions…we feel the playwright moving into gripping new territory. Just as the professor wants to go somewhere without a name, Shepard, bless him, keeps us searching.” —Newsday (NY). “These characters fit into Shepard’s pantheon of damaged, dysfunctional people linked by blood and desperation, but there is something particularly bleak and detached about their circumstances…What HEARTLESS reinforces is that we’re all lost, in various stages of decay and disrepair. Characteristically, Shepard finds the dark humor in this quandary.” —USA Today. “The heart has always been a vital organ in the plays of Sam Shepard, and never more so than in HEARTLESS, a poetic, enigmatic and often humorous exploration of the human failure to connect with one another that is the playwright’s most inspired and imaginative work in years…HEARTLESS defies any easy classification or even definition of subject matter…Shepard’s poetic sense of the absur"
— The Village Voice