Reviews

Buried Child by Sam Shepard

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pomegranatepanacea's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

i can see why this won the pulitzer prize

Content Warnings

moberle's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

An excellent play that can be as disturbing as it is funny. A weird mix of tones that wrestles with disillusionment toward the American dream and the collapse of the patriarchal family structure. Though it does have a lot of very good humor, I must also emphasize that it is a play that is not for the faint of heart and has some exceptionally dark family-drama. It has incredible character writing which supports some excellent exchanges of dialogue. It's perverse, bizarre, and disgusting. I love it.

shanviolinlove's review against another edition

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3.0

I'm really never sure what to make of Sam Shepard.

This is the second play I've read of his, and the surreal situations and inexplicable, provocative, often irrational actions of his characters leave me unable to decipher the point of the story or to connect with any characters. The audience/reader feels no reason to invest emotionally in Dodge, a cantankerous old man who could possibly be suffering from dementia (he cannot recognize a grown grandson who has only been away from home six years), except for the fact that the grandson's own father, Tilden, does not recognize him either. Tilden may also be suffering from some sort of mental disability, but this is a conjecture of mine, never qualified in the story. The reference to a buried child seems out of place, thrust awkwardly in a conversation Tilden has with Vince's girlfriend, and the reason for this, which is revealed in the end, is unconvincing, the weak motives possibly stemming from underdeveloped characters. Dodge's wife Halie spends far too much time "shouting" or "calling" her lines off-stage, which is possibly supposed to give an effect, but is tiresome as it goes on for pages (or minutes in the play). Every character resembles a caricature more than a fully-fleshed individual, most of them sporadic and unrealistically going through emotions and opinions, like flighty adolescents rather than adults. I am astonished how this play won a Pulitzer; while it is intriguing, there are many holes in the plot, room for improvement in the characters, and trope-like ploys in dialogue that Intro to Scriptwriting students would be taught to avoid.

cantordustbunnies's review against another edition

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3.0

This postmodernist play is one of "those" that starts off mysterious and interesting until you realize nothing is going to end up being "properly" explained and everything is actually symbolic/a metaphor (a more advanced version of "it was all a dream.") It takes a lot of skill to make plots like this good, David Lynch does a great job for example. I thought this play was just okay and that the heavily literary symbolism was awkward. The kind of symbolism where one character taunts an amputee with their missing limb and another character comes into the room holding random vegetables. It certainly had moments that could be quite emotionally charged and eerie but over all it was avant-garde in an academic yet cringe inducing sort of way. Perhaps if it was directed with a certain degree of twisted humor it could be a lot more palatable.