Heartless

by Sam Shepard

Set in a palatial home situated high above Los Angeles, “Heartless” concerns a fractured family whose dark secrets emerge with the arrival of a hapless Roscoe, a 65-year-old classics professor who’s left his wife and taken up with the decades-younger Sally.Even though he comes bearing a goodwill offering of jelly doughnuts, Roscoe is hardly embraced by Sally’s bitter older sister Lucy or the sisters’ wheelchair-bound mother, Mable, whose infirmity hasn’t diminished her ferocious temper.“Stop calling me ma’am all the time,” she snaps at Roscoe’s attempt at politeness. “Feels like we’re in ‘Gone With the Goddamn Wind.’ ”As the play lugubriously unfolds, nothing really happens beyond Shepard’s usual blend of magical realism and heavy-handed symbolism. Sally has a long scar down her chest, dating back to a childhood heart transplant from a young murder victim. One of the characters may or may not be a ghost. Mabel’s dutiful nurse, previously described as mute, suddenly begins talking. When she returns from a jog, her feet are covered in blood.“I run when I’ve come to the end of my rope,” she explains.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Sam Shepard was an American artist who worked as an award-winning playwright, writer and actor. His many written works are known for being frank and often absurd, as well as for having an authentic sense of the style and sensibility of the gritty modern American west. He was an actor of the stage and motion pictures; a director of stage and film; author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs; and a musician.

Reviews

[Mary Slowik · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, probably not the best introduction to Sam Shepard. A lot of this was inscrutable. I tend to enjoy dark and obscure but not this murky or meandering. Then again, there are some sharp lines and evocative little monologues, here and there. I got the sense that he wrote this for actors-- created some weird, interesting characters people would want to play-- rather than for readers. Or, y'know, an audience. Also, the random singing was... random.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with so many of Shepard’s works, what it all means is anybody’s guess. But here the mysteries seem shapeless, the conflicts arbitrary. And while the dialogue displays traces of his trademark sardonic humor, the proceedings are mostly dreary and uninvolving.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't believe I'm only giving 3 stars!
It might be a good play for someone less than Sam Shepard!
The Beckett influence is there: Godot & Endgame.
BUT Why was Roscoe a Cervantes scholar? Why did it matter to the play?
UGH!!!!!!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this scans as autobiographical, or at least an evocation of Shepard's lived experience up to this point. He'd recently had heart surgery and gone through a divorce, finding himself newly single and (likely) finding younger women for companionship much the same way Roscoe does here. To say nothing of the authors Roscoe claims to be reading/studying, which are referenced often by Shepard in his lattermost correspondence with Johnny Dark.

And overall, the play moves really well. I wouldn't hesitate to see this performed, exactly, but I don't think it quite coheres the way Shepard's best work does. It's not that the subject matter is approached with any real timidity or anything, but the realization of what seems to be the central, governing idea here (hell, it's even in the title) struck me as somewhat under-realized. Overall, this is quite a good play, but it could easily have been yet another great one. Reminded me quite a bit of "Seduced" in a weird way.

[Leslie D. Asplund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought- provoking play- see it performed at the Seattle Center, TPS Theatre 4 - October 3-7, 2018. It's a deeply meaningful examination of family dynamics and the challenges we face in trying to change...ourselves, our circumstances

Thought- provoking play- see it performed at the Seattle Center, TPS Theatre 4 - October 3-7, 2018. It's a deeply meaningful examination of family dynamics and the challenges we face in trying to change...ourselves, our circumstances.

[Wesley Kushner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slight disappointment from Sam Shepard. While it has his signature surrealist and dreamlike structure, much like a surrealist dream too much is introduced that goes nowhere. Maybe that's what he was going for but it detracts from the play. I still enjoyed the characters and dialogue, even if they are among the weaker of his.

[Jake Van Hoorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but a bit meandering

[César (pronounced with a Polish accent) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it. I forgot what it's about. Maybe that explains my two star review.