Iron Age Theatre&
The Montgomery County Cultural Center
Present
Iron Age Theatre
&
The Montgomery County Cultural Center
Present
The play is a wickedly funny and combustible exploration of the betrayal of the American dream, the death of the family, and the myths of the wild west that builds to an explosive ending.
Curse of the Starving Class opens April 5 and runs through April 28 at
the
Centre Theatre in the Montgomery County Cultural Center in Norristown.
Showtimes are at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 and
$12.
Call 610-279-1013 for information.
A gothic American take on The Cherry Orchard the play is one of Shepard’s masterpieces, a scathing examination of an American consumer society where no one remembers the past, but they never forget what you owe.
On a run-down but valuable farm in California, a family fights the unforgiving land, soulless developers, loan sharks, and each other for control of the rich land. The son is a deranged idealist, desperately trying to hold the family together and discover who he is. The father is a drunk dreamer, a character seemingly right out of the The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, wanting to believe in the myths he was brought up with, but unable to reconcile them with the brutality of the modern industrial world.
The daughter is a teen rebel, longing to escape from the farm on
horseback to
a life she imagines will be her own and free of society's artificial class
restrictions.
The mother, angling to move up both economically and socially, plots to sell
the
land without the rest of the family finding out.
Each member of the embattled clan plays a dangerous game to harness the land and each other, but the animalistic and blood ties that keep them bound together contribute to their downfall. The plot burns out of control, building to a taut, perilous theatrical climax as each character comes face to face with their personal demons and an avaricious society where family values mean nothing.
Sam Shepard is America's greatest living playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Buried Child, and has won 11 Obie awards. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Right Stuff.
"This is one of Shepard's greatest plays,” said Director John Doyle. "the play is his most comic and most excoriating study of the American family. It's a tough, edgy show that digs into the themes most important to Shepard: identity and roots. These people are starving for meaning and individuality in a modern world that refuses to recognize anything but the societal standard."
According to Doyle the dazzling language Shepard uses really makes his
plays stand out. "Nobody in the American theatre uses language like Shepard.
The
muscular, lyrical and completely American way his characters speak raise the
plays
to a height of mythic reality," said Doyle.
Iron Age returns to producing Sam Shepard after recent critically acclaimed productions of the African American boxing drama Coming of the Hurricane, the Tennessee Williams masterpiece Night of the Iguana, and the soaring drama Luther performed at the Lutheran Cathedral in Philadelphia.
Past Shepard productions by Iron Age have received rave reviews. The
Tooth of Crime was called “...the most challenging, interesting, and
creative
performance of any theatre in the area.” Simpatico, produced in 1999 at
the
Montgomery County Cultural Center was described as “one of the most important
stagings ever to hit the Cultural Center - one that respects Shepard’s
Promethean
reach in this strange nether world where high society meets the low life, and
revels
in the anguished power of his language.”
The Montgomery County Cultural Center and Iron Age Theatre proudly present the Sam Shepard's classic dark comedy "Curse of the Starving Class" opening April 5.
The play is a wickedly funny and powerful exploration of the betrayal of the American dream, the death of the family, and the myths of the wild west that builds to an explosive ending.
On a run-down but valuable farm in California, a family fights the unforgiving
land, soulless developers, loan sharks, and each other for control of the rich land.
The son is a deranged idealist, desperately trying to hold the family together and
discover who he is. The father is a drunk dreamer, a character seemingly right out of
the "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," wanting to believe in the myths he was
brought up with, but unable to reconcile them with the brutality of the industrial
world.
The daughter is a teen rebel, longing to escape from the farm on horseback to a life she imagines will be her own and free of society's artificial class restrictions. The mother, angling to move up both economically and socially plots to sell the land without the rest of the famil finding out.
Each family member plays a dangerous game to harness the land and each other, as the plot spirals out of control, building to a taut, perilous theatrical climax as each character comes face to face with their demons.
Sam Shepard is America's greatest living playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize
for his play "Buried Child," and has won 11 Obie awards. He was nominated for an
Oscar for his performance in "The Right Stuff."
This is one of Shepard's greatest plays," said Director John Doyle. "It's a tough, edgy play that digs into the themes most important to Shepard: identity and roots. These people are starving for meaning and individuality in a modern world that refuses to recognize anything but the societal standard."
According to Doyle the dazzling language Shepard uses really makes his plays stand out. "Nobody in the American theatre uses language like Shepard. The muscular, lyrical and completely American way his characters speak raise the plays to a height of mythic reality," said Doyle.
The Centre Theater is in the Montgomery County Cultural Center at 208 DeKalb Street in Norristown. It is easily reached from Routes 202, I-76, I-476 and Ridge Pike. There is plenty of free parking and the theatre is one block from Septa's R6 line.
April 5 - April 28, 2002
in the Centre Theater
at the Montgomery County Cultural Center
208 Dekalb Street, Norristown