Buried Child

WHAT IS BURIED CHILD ABOUT?

Set in rural America as it was reeling from a recession, the downturn of the agricultural industry and with a rising popularity in highly conservative candidates, the similarity of the political atmosphere in 1979 and 2016 is compelling, especially in the run-up to the American Presidential Election in November. Casting a brutal light on disenfranchised Americans, Buried Child is a dark, macabre and painfully funny family drama that is as relevant now as it was during it’s first run almost 40 years ago.

Dodge (Harris) and Halie (Madigan) are barely hanging on to their farmland and their sanity while looking after their two wayward grown sons. When their grandson Vince arrives with his girlfriend, no one seems to recognise him, and confusion abounds. As Vince tries to make sense of the chaos, the rest of the family dances around a deep, dark secret. This wildly poetic and cuttingly funny take on the American family drama gleefully pulls apart the threadbare deluded visions of our families and our homes.

WHO WROTE BURIED CHILD?

Buried Child launched the career of one of America’s greatest living playwrights, Sam Shepard. The play was awarded both a Pulitzer Prize and an Obie Award in 1979, and was subsequently nominated for five Tony Awards following its revival on Broadway in 1996. After working with film star Ed Harris in the film The Right Stuff in 1983, Shepard wrote the role of Eddie in his play Fool for Love for Harris’ stage debut. Following that partnership, Buried Child is now the fifth of Shepard’s plays that Harris has performed in, including Cowboy Mouth, True West and Simpatico. Oscar nominee Amy Madigan plays the wife of real-life husband Harris on stage for the second time, following The Jacksonian in 2013. Madigan and Harris met on the set on 1984 film Places in the Heart, and have since featured in another ten films together, including Harris’ directorial debut Pollock in 2000, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

WHO STARS IN BURIED CHILD?

For the first time, the multi-award-winning, international star Ed Harris (Pollock, The Hours, The Truman Show and the forthcoming HBO series from J.J. Abrams & Jonathan Nolan; Westworld) will appear on the West End stage, to reprise his role of Dodge in Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer & Obie prize winning play, Buried Child, following a critically acclaimed New York run earlier this year. Harris will be joined by fellow Golden Globe winner, Amy Madigan (Twice in a Lifetime, Roe vs. Wade), who will also reprise her role of Halie, with further casting to be announced in due course.