Join the StageAgent community Wesley enters and decides that Emma's project is pointless and that she ought to focus on more important things. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. I am aware that I have taken on characters that are outside of my RACE, GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, DIALECT, and AGE. Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. eNotes.com, Inc. eNotes.com Some critics consider it part of a Family Trilogy that includes Buried Child (1979) and True West (1980). . Christian H. Moe. She has just started her first period, and has several mood swings during the play. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. 14. [2] The screenplay was written by Bruce Beresford, who also served as an executive producer. Part of the immensely useful Twaynes U.S. Dogs. Keys turned off. Wesley tells him to take the Packard and escape to Mexico. Inside has become a hollow, void place to the family, and as a result, they want outElla to Europe, Emma to Mexico, Wesley to Alaska, Weston to an alcoholic stupor. First gear grinding. Another risk in weak productions of Shepards work is that directors will make too little or too much of his surrealism. Curse of the Starving Class is a play by Sam Shepard, considered the first of a series on family tragedies. [5] The cast was as follows: Wesley - Ebbe Roe Smith Ella - Olympia Dukakis Emma - Pamela Reed Taylor - Kenneth Welsh Weston - James Gammon Ellis - Eddie Jones Malcolm - John Aquino Sam Shepard's coming of age drama about a dirt-poor 1950's-era farm family. He tells the lamb a story about an eagle who was diving very close down to the ground trying to steal the testes of the lambs he was castrating. Weston and Wesley discuss the poison that Weston feels has infected him all of his life. Weston, slightly drunk, is a big man; he wears baggy pants, tennis shoes, an overcoat, and a baseball cap. Important moments, themes, monologues:-gender roles-Emma's monologue about being a mechanic and swindling her mom out of money Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Wheels screaming. Lights go off. Weston begins to tell Wesley about how he began to see the poison in his own father, and how Wesley can see it in him. The second date is today's Wilmeth, Don B. and Miller, Tice L. "The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre", Cambridge University Press, 1996, Yale Rep Starts Shepard's 'Curse Of The Starving Class' Feb. 3 in New Haven", "Long Wharf Theatre stages 'Curse of the Starving Class' February 13 through March 10", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curse_of_the_Starving_Class&oldid=1020900821, This page was last edited on 1 May 2021, at 18:23. Taylor explains that selling is in Ellas best financial interests. 14. Peacocks. For instance, sprinkling sand on the stage to evoke Shepards edge-of-America Western localeshe grew up on an avocado farm in Duarte, California, near Route 66as is done in the current revival of his 1977 play Curse of the Starving Class (at the Signature, under the direction of Terry Kinney), does little to get at his genius, which was not about surfaces but about how peoples lives can be mangled by their belief in surfaces. Man throwing up. "Curse of the Starving Class - Bibliography" Great Characters in Literature Act-by-act or chapter-by-chapter summaries and reviews of the plays and books I am currently reading. Word Count: 89. Wesleys monologue is like the steady tapping of rain on a windowpane: melancholy and constant. DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1962. Whole body crashing. Ella falls asleep on the table and Wesley, dressed in Westons old clothes, enters. Inviting Wesley to have some breakfast, he tells him (as Wesley walks off) that he is reconsidering the idea of planting avocados. Monologues. Their conversation quickly turns to an issue of thematic importance: restlessness and dissatisfaction in heartland America. Wesley tells her, when she asks if he is going to take over the role of Daddy Bear, that he feels himself becoming his father, that as he put on Westons clothes, he could feel something growing on him. Sound of door not opening. Addressing the lamb, he sets a duffel and a grocery bag on the table. Just sitting. Christian H. Moe. Kissel, Howard, Review of Curse of the Starving Class, in Womens Wear Daily, March 3, 1978. Can you send me character analysis of characters of Sam Shepard's play "Curse of the Starving Class"? Just from my dad coming back. 14. The entire upkeep of the farm falls on the shoulders of their idealistic son, Wesley, the only one who seems to have some hope for the family left. 2003 eNotes.com He picks up the lamb and carries it off. Wesley does not want to do it because he is making the door and Emma doesn't want to do it because she is remaking her posters. Ellis, the owner of the bar where Weston drinks, enters with $1500 and says he owes Weston for the sale of the house; Ella orders her son to throw him out. 1998 eNotes.com His violent nature and utter lack of accountability are the crux of many of the family's issues. Then no sound. publication online or last modification online. She then becomes angry with the refrigerator and slams it shut. He and Emerson represent the men that Weston owes money to, and have come to serve as a warning. Theres a moment in Curse when a character says, after an exchange about enemy territory, Were all white, arent we? It passes so quickly that you might not hear it, but its there, in a script that was first produced when Shepard was only thirty-three and the theatre world was decades away from being woke. Thats what I treasure about Shepard: his matter-of-fact observations about where his characters stand in the worldobservations that also tell us so much about the world they inhabit. Wesley protests feebly. date the date you are citing the material. The play opens with Wesley putting pieces of a broken down door into a wheelbarrow. Dad calling Mom. From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. Curse of the Starving Class Wesley, in sweatshirt, jeans and cowboy boots picks up pieces of a broken door and throws them methodically into an old wheelbarrow. Throwing the artichokes out, she fills the refrigerator. While Ella takes steps to get away by trying to sell the old homestead, through a lawyer named Taylor (Andrew Rothenberg), Wesley can't imagine his life as anything other than what it is: he. All rights reserved. California suffers from rolling blackouts, and the major population centers of the East Coast are warned about similar blackouts or brownouts. Man cursing. 28 Feb. 2023 . If Noel Cowards character were chic and elegant then Sams were real rootless and raw and I like it! date the date you are citing the material. VerMeulen, Michael. He remembers a time he was castrating sheep and appeased an eagle by throwing testicles up on a tin roof where the bird could get them. She reassures the refrigerator that soon there will be little eggs, butter, and other foods tucked away inside of it. . Taylor says that any deal Weston makes is void because he is considered incompetent by the state. Sam Shepard: A Casebook. Incapable of driving or holding a job, he is a profoundly unstable man controlled by the alcohol that runs in his system. Below are five dramatic monologues for women of various ages, pulled from a wide variety of sourceseverything from a Sam Shepard play to HBO's "Succession.". My Messerschmitt. Taylor leaves, and Wesley yells at the policeman to arrest him for being a confidence man. *Our system only provides suggested monologues or songs for select characters if we have matching monologues and song information in our database. Beaufort, John, Off-Broadway: Tale of a Blighted Family, in Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 1978. Whenand where doesTheCurse of the Starving Class take place? Mumbling about his experience flying planes in the Second World War, he passes out again. She is just waking up and winds an alarm clock in her hand as she watches WESLEY sleepily. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. The play closed on April 9, 1978. Emma walks out. American Gothic: Sam Shepard's Family Trilogy.. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. 1970s: With the first wave of feminism, women begin demanding equal treatment by the law and by their husbands. Downshifting into second for the last pull up the hill. Also inevitable, and also treated as a curse, is Emmas menstruation (which is another image of the inside escaping to the outside). Directors and actors tend to latch onto the more obvious effects in Shepards writing, including the types of characters he returned to time and again: disgruntled drunk dads, battling spouses and siblings, forsaken lovers. I could smell the avocado blossoms. The Tate family is a lower middle class, rural California family, trying to hold on to the last shreds of a family bond and traditional living. This play cannot be decoded as an allegory in which we can reduce the refrigerator to a representation of spiritual hunger, the lamb to a representation of sacrifice and innocence, and the door to a representation of the barrier between the family and the outside world. Word Count: 269. Further Reading The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. eNotes.com, Inc. Ella warns Emma that swimming during her period could kill her. Results may vary. Ella returns with groceries. While Ella takes steps to get away by trying to sell the old homestead, through a lawyer named Taylor (Andrew Rothenberg), Wesley cant imagine his life as anything other than what it is: he moves and speaks as if bewitched by the awfulness; his existence is a Daddy-dominated dream. Feet. Wesley embarks upon a long monologue narrating the events of the previous night before leaving, at which point Ella begins talking to nobody in particular about the start of menstruation. In the fridge, she finds some bacon and bread and, as she fries up the last of the familys meat, Wesley thinks about himself and his father and recalls a memory: I was lying there on my back. His symbolsthe lamb, the broken door, the refrigerator, the old carjump out at the viewer and almost announce I am a symbol! But Shepard uses them less as true symbols than as evocative images. Ed. At first, Weston can't remember who all he has loaned money to, and begins to rant about how this is his home and nobody ought to be able to take it from him because he has nowhere else to go. Wesley re-enters, wearing his father's old clothes. He pulls out the $1,500, telling them that is the amount that Weston owes to some pretty hard fellas. . In the play, as in the real world, these families were often taken advantage of, selling their land for well below market rates and finding themselves with nowhere to go and little money to sustain them. Wesley then leaves and Ella begins to give a motherly talk on what happens during menstruation and what cannot be done during the cycle. A 1994 film adaptation of the same name stars James Woods (Weston), Kathy Bates (Ella), Henry Thomas (Wesley), Randy Quaid (Taylor), and Jim Fitzpatrick (Emerson). Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. Emma runs away, only to return covered with mud, thrown by her horse. When Kinneys staging of Curse begins, we hear snatches of rock and roll as the lights come up on a large, dirty kitchen whose door to the outside world has been busted in. However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. Wesley enters, sets up a small fenced enclosure in the kitchen, exits, and reenters with a lamb. Wesley is not happy with his mother's decision, and she continues to try and ask him to go stop Emma. goose eggs! Ella is a highly dysfunctional individual with no capacity to cope with her husband's alcoholism. . As she speaks, her daughter, Emma enters and joins the conversation in progress. The agriculture drew refugees from the Dust Bowl states during the Great Depression, and poor people thronged to southern California. Wesley tells Weston that his creditors are going to kill him. Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. Soft crying. Then I heard the Packard coming up the hill. We don't currently have any monologues from Curse of the Starving Class . 2023 . sound like? Feet stopping. Then stopping. Then crying softly. Act 2 begins with the sounds of hammering. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. Ella points this out to Emma and Emma storms off, insisting that she is going to take the horse and run away. Scouting me. An enormous explosion is heard. Man yelling. Two motifs, very near each other in meaning, recur throughout Curse of the Starving Class: images of inside/outside and images of disease and sickness. New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall SymbolismCurse of the Starving Class uses symbolism a great deal, but Shepard uses it in a jarring way. Wesley then leaves and Emma returns, covered in mud after being thrown from the horse and dragged through the mud. Wesley and Emma then argue over who is going to go add water to the artichokes that are boiling on the stove. WESLEY keeps cleaning up the debris, ignoring her. Ella begins to act antsy and Emma realizes that Ella has boiled her chicken. all the upkeep! Take a look at our library of free monologues . Weston is proud of Emma, saying that it takes guts to do something like that at her age. Allow Necessary Cookies & Continue The curtain falls as Wesley and Weston discuss how to rid the lamb of the maggots that are infesting its digestive tract. Ella goes to the back part of the house and Emma goes to the refrigerator. Randall, Phyllis R., Adapting to Reality: Language in Shepards Curse of the Starving Class, in Sam Shepard: A Casebook, edited by Kimball King, Garland, 1988. Mom screaming. Ella. Gain full access to show guides, character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more! Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. They tell him that they have blown up the car with Emma in it. Breakdown. The conventions of dialogue in the play again present this mixture. The man tells her that his name is Taylor and that he is looking for her mother. Woman screaming. I listened like an animal. He tells her it was the night's sleep on the table that fixed everything. Curse of the Starving Class Jan 26 2023 Tells the story of a dysfunctional family living in a farmhouse they are planning to sell in the hopes of moving on to bigger and better things. I was looking straight up at the ceiling at all my model airplanes hanging by all their thin metal wires. In act 1, while Ella prepares her breakfast, Wesley has a long speech in which he recounts his sense of life while lying in bed, not simply on this night but also on many other nights. Taylor enters and talks with Emma, who calls him creepy. Marranca, Bonnie, ed. Weston exits and Emma enters. The curse on the family is described by both women as something that breeds internally in Weston and Wesley and is inevitable. The men tell Wesley, still calling him Weston, that he is to pass on the warning to his father and they leave. When the Spanish first explored the area of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, the region was arid, almost desert. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Today, Los Angeles is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world. Gale Cengage Vol. The curse, as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. Log in here. Whatever the cause, the Tates will do just about anything to raise themselves out of the downward spiral into which they've fallen. Watt, Douglas, In the End, Emptiness, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978. publication in traditional print. DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1992. "Curse of the Starving Class - Dramatic Devices" Survey of Dramatic Literature publication in traditional print. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. I could feel this country close like it was part of my bones. Mom calling cops. Ella stares at the lamb. Taking pictures of the enemy. the maintenance!. How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? Underdogs take center stage in a newsroom drama about Rupert Murdoch and in Taylor Macs spin on Shakespeares first tragedy. The play presents a seemingly bizarre family and a series of events involving the sale of its home, but actually pointing to the disintegration of the family. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. eNotes.com In an eerie way he is speaking neither to his mother nor directly to the audience; instead, the audience is allowed to hear his thought processes. Weston says that when he woke up that morning, after sleeping on the table, that he felt like a new man and walked around their property naked to reclaim ownership. Act I Man going insane. Emma and Wesley discuss whether their mother will come back, or whether she will run off to Mexico with Taylor. Ellis says that Weston must have sent Emma down there and takes back his $1,500 and runs off to his club, swearing he will get revenge on Weston. The dramatic means Shepard uses to present her underlines the theme of the play, the failure of communication, the failure of love, the failure of these individuals to nurture their young. Ella pushes all the laundry to the floor and lies on the table. [9] The play focuses on the disturbed Tate familythe drunken father, burned-out mother, rebellious teenage daughter, and idealistic sonas they struggle for control of the rundown family farm in a futile search for freedom, security, and ultimately meaning in their lives. Emma, by way of contrast, often shouts her lines from offstage. The play ends as Wesley, his back to his mother, concludes the story. Weston explains his new outlook: He took a bath, walked around the place naked, cleaned everything, ate a good breakfast, and decided to fix things up. Their daughter, Emma, is a smart and rebellious teen, itching to get away from her crazy home. Wood splitting. Weston leaves. Ink and Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Play with History. Circuit: Stories from the life of a series on family tragedies hard fellas,... That Weston owes to some pretty hard fellas conversation quickly turns to an issue of thematic importance restlessness! Add water to the refrigerator all the laundry to the floor and on..., character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more symbols than as evocative.!, concludes the story he sets a duffel and a grocery bag on the table and Wesley discuss their! That she ought to focus on more important things several mood swings during the Great Depression, reenters... A duffel and a grocery bag on the kitchen table demanding equal by... That breeds internally in Weston and Wesley yells at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on kitchen... Clock in her hand as she speaks, her daughter, Emma, is smart!, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020 stop Emma https: //www.enotes.com/topics/curse-starving/in-depth # in-depth-the-play > a. 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Her period could kill her the alcohol that runs in his system points! Leaves, and have come to serve as a warning have blown up the debris, ignoring her,! Help you with any book or any question that selling is in Ellas best financial interests,... On Shakespeares first tragedy of Dramatic Literature publication in traditional print Weston who is going to add. Reassures the refrigerator that soon there will be little eggs, butter, and people! Monologues or songs for select characters if we have matching monologues and song information our. Back part of the Starving Class '' who calls him creepy to focus more... A smart and rebellious teen, ella monologue curse of the starving class to get away from her crazy home accountability the... Select characters if we have matching monologues and more Stories from the horse and run away sleep the... 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