The 1996 production of Buried Child successfully captures Sam Shepard’s nuances of the “buried child” and the disconnection within this broken family. The stage setup of the production matched Shepard’s description almost perfectly with the old furniture, tired and sick Dodge in his brown blanket, and the stairs where Hallie’s words echo down as she screams at Dodge. This very first character interaction already shows a disconnection that seems to be present both physically and mentally for all characters throughout the play. Hallie yells at Dodge from upstairs forcing him to yell back in order to communicate although he mainly ignored her and let Hallie ramble on. To drown her voice away, Dodge yells for Tilden, their oldest son who seems to need attention and care at all times because of something that happened in New Mexico. Tilden speaks quietly and monotonously with an expressionless face towards the ceiling or the audience, a disconnection with the rest of the characters, until he talks about the baby which is the only time when he raises his voice in the play. Vince and Shelly enters hoping to be welcomed by a warm family only to be disappointed and frustrated when the family doesn’t recognize Vince. Dodge throws a tantrum like a baby when Tilden “stole my[his] bottle” and disregards Vince until Vince agrees to buy a bottle of whiskey for him reinforcing the themes of disengagement and childlike behaviors. The scenes when Tilden asks to borrow Shelly’s coat which he cradles close to his chest like a baby and when Bradley enters to bully Tilden by shaking Dodge’s pills and whiny noises, Tilden cries to the similar sounds of a baby all alluding to the secret of the buried child. However, it is the very last scene when Hallie is yelling from upstairs about the vegetables in the backyard, Vince sitting on the couch unfazed, and Tilden entering with the corpse of the baby’s bones that reinforced the idea of this broken family where the characters disregards and ignores each other’s presence and speech.
Digging Deeper in the Play and Production of Buried Child
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I thought it was very interesting how you addressed Tilden’s need to be taken care, along with how that it referenced a few times through Halie’s screaming. It’s ironic in a way because aside from those points, we never actually see any of the other characters trying to take care of him or offering him aid/guidance. They reference the grave mistake he made to be kicked out of New Mexico, but as far as we know, no resolution or help has been offered to Tilden. This just goes to show how deep the facade of familial relations can go. They are a family, but they do not share any emotional connections with one another.
I like the way you symbolized Tilden walking in with the baby corpse representing the idea of this broken family. This was a powerful last scene. I also noticed that you pointed out from the very beginning the characters showed a disconnection and this was evident in virtually every relationship present in the play. You reinforced how Hallie always yells at Dodge and she is ignored by him. To me, this was a very critical piece of evidence of the superficiality and unauthenticity of their relationships. She keeps on yelling at Dodge to take his pills and in order to respond, he has to strain his voice which is weakening his health, even more, when she could just come downstairs and talk.