“Curse of the Starving Class” is Sam Shepard at his starkest and his most symbolic

The late playwright Sam Shepard’s 1977 tragedy Curse of the Starving Class is a sometimes bewildering, partly realistic, partly symbolic, grand and glorious mess of a play. New York’s The New Group has taken on the challenge of producing it at off-Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center, and they, in turn, are challenging audiences with it.

It’s a play that must be experienced to be believed, daring the audience to leave reason behind and go with the flow. In other words, Curse of the Starving Class is a must-see.

Scott Elliott directs a talented ensemble, with Calista Flockhart and Christian Slater heading the cast as Ella and Weston Tate, owners of a rundown farm in California. The Tate family, including son Wesley (Cooper Hoffman) and daughter Emma (Stella Marcus), inhabit a house that appears to be falling apart before our eyes. All four family members are at odds with each other. Ella and Weston are mutually tired of each other. Wesley and Emma turn their sibling rivalry into a very uneven pissing match. The kids are rebelling, the parents don’t know what to make of their children, and nobody encourages anyone else in any way, shape, or form. 

To make matters worse, Ella and Weston each believe the house and land belong solely to them. Ella is being seduced by real estate agent Taylor (Kyle Beltran) to sell the house and property for development. Weston, trying to get money to pay back debts to the local loan sharks, sells the house and land to local bar owner Ellis (Jeb Kreager). Suffice it to say that all hell breaks loose when Ellis arrives to pay Weston for the land.

Arnulfo Maldonado has created, with lighting designer Jeff Croiter and sound designer Leah Gelpe, the world’s most run-down kitchen, with broken French doors and Venetian blinds, featuring a forlorn refrigerator that provides some welcome humor in the first act.

The program warns that Curse of the Starving Class contains strobe lights, haze, the smoking of herbal cigarettes, live animals (shout-out to Lois the sheep, a scene-stealer in her own right), fragrant smells, nudity, strong and graphic language, depictions and discussions of violence, and drug and alcohol abuse. What more could you ask for in a play? I encourage you to take a trip to visit the Tate family and see if they can break the Curse of the Starving Class!

Curse of the Starving Class is presented by The New Group at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre inside the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street in New York, through Apr. 6, 2025. For more information or to order tickets, go to thenewgroup.org.