Curse of the Starving Class – Consumate Denial

The Tate family is in disarray and denial. Patriarch Weston, absent weeks at a time, shows up drunk, and leaves hung over. Seemingly impassive, but at the end of her rope, wife Ella has resolved to sell the property – worth more than their dilapidated house – and fantasizes moving to Europe. She’s been told her husband’s instability allows for the transaction without his signature.

Son Wesley spends most of the play determined to make a go of it where they are. A single mention
of moving to Alaska seems like a slip on the playwright’s part rather than a plan of last resort. The young man’s attention to a (live) sheep, fencing her in the kitchen for warmth, creates stark contrast to provocation which results in maniacal butchering.

Cooper Hoffman (Wesley), Christian Slater (Weston), Stella Marcus (Emma)

Wesley’s sister Emma, on the other hand, can’t get away fast enough. Horse and then car are enlisted in theatrical, failed attempts. Disgusted with her family, she intends to go off on her own. As it’s specified Emma has her first period, casting younger would’ve made running away less plausible, but more accurate.

While Ella negotiates with her lawyer/property developer/possible lover, Taylor, Weston secretly sells
their home to alleviate considerable debt. Confrontation is incendiary.

Lois and Christian Slater (Weston)

Sam Shepard once again explores parameters of masculinity challenged by circumstances in this 1977 play, creating characters who ignore or can’t cope with responsibility. Weston barely remembers debt, then shrugs off what could be fatal consequences. Ella’s dream of another life couldn’t be further from and more implausible than the current situation. The Tates deny inclusion in “the starving class,” yet teeter on abject poverty. No resolution is apparent.

Almost buried in exposition is Weston’s vivid recollection of being exhilarated by the strength, surety,
and freedom of an eagle to whom he offered sheep testes and a cat that foolishly vied for the treat. The metaphor might be aspiration of a beast whose helplessness against a predator signifies the America Dream.

Cooper Hoffman (Wesley), Christian Slater (Weston)

This is a long, uncomfortable play which production does little to spark.

Director Scott Elliott creates apt physical movement and small business. The family’s disconsolate relationship with an empty refrigerator – into which they talk – unusual use of the kitchen table, moments of sudden violence, employment of the (live) sheep (Lois); character-specific bearing, all admirably contribute. Intermittent breaking of the fourth wall for spot-lit monologues, however, yanks us out of
kitchen sink realism with which Shepard wrote. Acting is inconsistent, often self conscious.

Calista Flockhart’s Ella Tate starts well, vibrating with stoicism, but shows us not a moment of vulnerability except when Weston nuzzles her late in the play. From the moment she wakes up on the table, timing is off. The play’s ending in Flockhart’s hands is over abrupt and falls flat.

David Anzuelo, Cooper Hoffman (Wesley), Calista Flockhart (Ella)

As Weston Tate, Christian Slater’s depiction paces itself opposite to that of Flockhart. I don’t believe his drunkenness for a moment, yet the character’s second act reinvention lands well and sustains.

Cooper Hoffman’s angry, confused Wesley is the most representative of Shepherd ‘s nihilistic point of view. The actor personifies an ungrounded state, perhaps exemplifying perpetual hunger for manageable life as well as food. He reads authentic.

Newcomer Stella Marcus (Emma)‘s early outburst erupts without motivation. The actress/character remains sullen and one dimensional. To be fair, Shepard has not written her with clarity.

A call out is due to David Anzuelo’s excellent tough guy.

Arnulfo Maldonado’s realistic set is marvelously detailed from the irony of a dream catcher to the pock-marked fridge, mismatched chairs and shattered glass. Properties supervisor Jackson Berkley works in perfect tandem. The result is distressingly move-in ready. Note: blood on Wesley’s gloves should come
off on what he touches.

Lighting Design (Jeff Croiter) is persistently confusing. Rapid changes in time of day don’t seem to accurately reflect time passed. We never know when we are.

Photos by Monique Carboni
Opening: Calista Flockhart, Christian Slater

The New Group presents
Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard
Directed by Scott Elliott

Through April 6, 2025
The Pershing Square Signature Center 
(The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater, 480 West 42nd Street)