The 1996 production on Buried Child added a new dimension to Sam Shepherd’s play, in that the printed words from the dialogue were brought to life with the employment of human expression and body language. The characters were given faces, and their conversations were given voice. When the play began with the scene between Hallie and Dodge, my first thought was that their voices annoyed me. The grating yelling of Hallie accompanied by Dodge’s hoarse cough-laden speech made me grind my teeth; I did not experience such strong emotions when I was reading the script in my head. I pictured small things individually, as they were described in the stage directions, but I realized when taking in the entirety of the stage that my imaginings were not vivid enough. Little things like a hole in the blanket would catch my attention suddenly, and this served to further cement me in the moment; it drew me into the scene in a way that the script couldn’t. Intonations in the language were not something I considered very much when reading the dialogue, but when they were present in the play I understood that they added vibrancy to the story and further distinguished the characters in my mind. Their personalities were amplified through facial expressions and bodily mannerisms, and my interpretations on the personas described in the script became clearer. Tilden was the one who affected me the most with his facial expressions, I felt that out of all the other characters his eyes held the most emotion. Their distant, glazed look emphasized his muddled mental state, which I felt made his lines more powerful as he delivered them. It was also the noises on the stage that added life to the script; the banging of the doors, the sounds of Bradley’s Heavy prosthetic leg stomping about, and the movements up and down the stairs all made the fake set look lived in. The addition of all these elements filled in the spaces between the lines of the dialogue, and gave a more concrete image to the concept of “family.”
The idea that the movements of these actors deepened our understanding of their respective characters did not initially occur to me. I really like that you pointed out Bradley’s “stomping.” His movements were harsh, labored and aggressively loud. They truly reflected his violent, “bully-like” character as his movements forced our attention onto him and likely caused us to feel a bit jarred at their loudness and their uncouthness.
In addition to this, his movements and the noises produced by them also could have evoked feelings of pity for him and his struggle, which also reflects his very childish and whiny character that needs his mother’s help in fighting his battles.
The idea that the movements of these actors deepened our understanding of their respective characters did not initially occur to me. I really like that you pointed out Bradley’s “stomping.” His movements were harsh, labored and aggressively loud. They truly reflected his violent, “bully-like” character as his movements forced our attention onto him and likely caused us to feel a bit jarred at their loudness and their uncouthness.
In addition to this, his movements and the noises produced by them also could have evoked feelings of pity for him and his struggle, which also reflects his very childish and whiny character that needs his mother’s help in fighting his battles.