The 1996 production of Buried Child was a great performance of Sam Shephard’s original play. It helps to watch this play to truly see how the scene and environment were meant to look and feel and to see how the characters interact with one another. By just reading the play, different people can imagine the appearance and intonations of a character, but by watching it, you get to see how the director and screenwriter wanted us to see them.
First of all, the environment the play took place in really helped set the bleak and depressing mood of the play. Although the room is lit with artificial lighting, you could see that parts of the room were left dark. Besides the couch chair and coffee table, I felt the room looked pretty large and almost empty. It felt like there was not much life left in the room. The play never moves from that room, either. This aura lasts throughout. It leaves the characters the potential to bring it to life, but they don’t.
The characters also were well portrayed and we can see who they are by observing their interactions with each other. Dodge and Halie’s conversation in the beginning of the play almost sounds like a shouting match, which is not good for Dodge, as we hear him coughing between lines. We can see that Halie is concerned about Dodge when she asks him if he wants to take a pill, but then she proceeds to yell from another room, forcing him to yell back and strain his voice. We can see how truly meek Tilden is whenever he speaks with Dodge or Shelley and when Bradley scares him off. Bradley acts like a bully when it benefits him, but starts whining when his leg gets taken away by Shelley. The characters are well-portrayed and give a good visualization of their personalities.
