Fool of Desire: The Spectator to the Plays of Sam Shepard

Abstract

The extravagant theatricality which characterizes the plays of Sam Shepard intrigues and frequently perplexes critics. Some, like Walter Kerr, dismiss the work with the suggestion that the flamboyance masks its essentially trite content. He suggests that Shepard is deliberately and relentlessly obscure: "His tendency is to stick to his bailiwick and keep on doing what he's been doing even if this forces him into repeating doleful banalities.” Others. like Gerald Weales. suggest that conventional critical strategies concerned with the discovery of meaning never adequately address the dynamic play of Shepard's work. "Traditionally. reviewers have found it congenial to handle plays by talking about what they are about and that is the least valuable way of approaching Shepard's work.” In Shepard's work meaning (in the sense of action which refers to a "reality" beyond the play) often seems to be subverted by the theatricality of the plays because Shepard is concerned not with producing meaning but with the production of meaning in the theatre.

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