Buried Child

Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard first presented in 1978 in San Francisco. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright. Buried Child is a piece of theatre which depicts the fragmentation of the American nuclear family in a context of disappointment and disillusionment with American mythology and the American dream, the 1970s rural economic slowdown and the breakdown of traditional family structures and values.

Performance history in South Africa
In South Africa the play was presented by the Market Theatre Company Upstairs at the Market in 1982, starring Neville Thomas (Bradley), Jeremy Crutchley (Vince), Dale Cutts (Father Dewis), Frantz Dobrowsky (Dodge), Wilson Dunster (Tilden), Gay Lambert (Halie), Bo Petersen (Shelly). Directed by Lucille Gillwald, designed by Patti Slavin, lighting design by Patrick Miller.

Presented by The Mechanicals at the Little Theatre, Cape Town, in August 2008, directed by Christopher Weare, starring Guy de Lancey, Gina Pauling, Scott Sparrow, Jason Potgieter, Nicholas Pauling, Tinarie van Wyk Loots and Kate Liquorish. Design by Christopher Weare.

Translations and adaptations
Translated into Afrikaans by Saartjie Botha with the title Doodsnikke. Produced at the KKNK 2012 under the direction of Janice Honeyman starring Anna-Mart van der Merwe and Gys de Villiers in the lead roles. (Die Burger 31 Maart 2012).

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