Curse of the Starving Class to return at National Theatre
Story Highlights
- “You know, writing for the theatre is so different to writing for anything else. Because what you write is eventually going to be spoken. That's why I think so many really powerful novelists can't write a play – because they don't understand that it's spoken, that it hits the air. They don't get that.” – Sam Shepard.
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Sam Shepard’s play Curse of the Starving Class will return to the National Theatre in Tirana from April 27- May 1 at 19:00. Directed by Kastriot Cipi, the drama stars Genti Deà§ka, Yllka Mujo, Gà«zim Rudi, Esela Pysqyli, Vasjan Lami, Laert Vasili, Ervin Bejleri, Artan Imami, Gert Ferra, Besmir Bitraku, etc.
Three-act drama tells the story of a dysfunctional family that constantly fights against the curse of the starving class and according to the Long Wharf Theatre it “balances dark comedy and biting satire in its look at a family fighting to stay alive.” As it contains partial nudity and inappropriate vocabulary, the play is limited to an audience over 14 years old.
Often considered as part of a Family Trilogy including Buried Child (1979) and True West (1980) as well as part of a quintet which including Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985), the play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London on April 21, 1977. Directed by Nancy Meckler, the play was commissioned by Joseph Papp and starred Ebbe Roe Smith, Olympia Dukakis, Pamela Reed, Kenneth Welsh, James Gammon, Eddie Jones, John Aquino, Michael J. Pollard, Raymond J. Barry, Robert Woodruff, etc.
“You know, writing for the theatre is so different to writing for anything else. Because what you write is eventually going to be spoken. That’s why I think so many really powerful novelists can’t write a play – because they don’t understand that it’s spoken, that it hits the air. They don’t get that,” according to Shepard.
Among Shepard’s best plays are: The rock garden, Cowboys, Chicago, Icarus’s Mother, Red Cross, La Turista, The Holy Ghostly, The Unseen Hand, Oh! Calcutta!, Operation Sidewinder, Mad Dog Blues, Black Bog Beast Bait, Cowboy Mouth, The Tooth of Crime, Geography of a Horse Dreamer, Action, Angel City, Suicide in B Flat, Inacoma, etc.
