News release
Eclipse Theatre LA’s production of “Curse of the Starving Class,” which won Sam Shepard the 1977 Obie Award for Best New American Play, opens Jan. 23 and runs through Feb. 1 at The Main in Old Town Newhall.
“‘Curse’ is a darkly comic, emotionally charged play that explores the crumbling American dream through the lens of a dysfunctional family on the brink,” said a news release from the nonprofit theater group.
Set in a rundown farmhouse in rural California, the Tate family — battling poverty, broken dreams, and each other — clings to hope as they face betrayal, absurdity, and the ghosts of a starving spirit, the release said. “Gritty, poetic, and laced with Shepard’s signature surrealism, this play is a gripping look at survival, identity, and the hunger that haunts us all.”
“This play is so exciting because it’s Sam Shepard: terrifying, risky and poetic,” director Shanan Harrell said in the release. “Curse was the first of Shepard’s famed trilogy on the American family followed by ‘True West’ and ‘Buried Child’ (Pulitzer Prize winner). His work can be dark and difficult with a dash of absurdity. Did I really want to immerse myself and nine actors into that world? Yes, please.”
Harrell added: “The play addresses the expansion of corporate interests into rural communities, disputed property ownership, toxic masculinity, addiction, family trauma and the all-around deterioration of the American dream. It’s the Curse. As Ella Tate says, ‘And it always comes. Repeats itself. It comes even when you do everything to stop it from coming.’ So yeah, 40 years later, it’s still coming.”
This play deals with adult themes and strong language, and is not intended for young audiences.
For this production, Eclipse Theatre is donating a portion of ticket sales to the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry.
Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 23 through Feb. 1. Tickets ($24.34 including fees) are available at www.atthemain.org.
