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"Buried Child"; digs into secrets that can ruin family
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Molly Galano and Sam Perry play a husband and wife in the family drama “Buried Child” at the Youngstown Playhouse.
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
As its title suggests, “Buried Child” does not exactly make for an evening of light entertainment.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning 1979 play by Sam Shepard invariably leaves audiences pondering how certain choices can drag a family into ruin.
“Buried Child” will open Friday at Youngstown Playhouse for a two-weekend run, part of the Griffith-Adler series in the theater’s Moyer Room.
Mary Ruth Lynn, executive director of the Playhouse, is directing the play.
“Buried Child” enters the household of a rural American family that has been poisoned by a secret kept hidden for many years.
“It explores what is happening below the surface of a family that was once happy and thought it had the American Dream, only to discover that one mistake robbed them of everything they had worked toward,” said Lynn. “It’s a well-written script with well-drawn characters. It’s for those who like theater that makes them think.”
The patriarch of the family is Dodge, an alcoholic and a failed farmer. His wife, Haley, is a religious hypocrite who also drinks too much. Sam Perry plays the role of Dodge, with Molly Galano as Haley. Bill Finley plays Father Dewis, the family’s minister.
The children and grandchildren are Tilden (played by David El’Hatton), the oldest boy, addled by emotional trauma and drug use; Bradley (Johnny Pecano), the lesser-loved son who is now in control; and Tilden’s son Vince (Ryan Newell), the prodigal who returns to a home that’s not the way he remembered it.
Providing the outsider’s viewpoint as Vince’s girlfriend is Shelly (Kate Starling). As Shelly tries to understand the family, she becomes the catalyst that forces out its secret.
Only after the secret is brought out into the open does the family have hope of moving forward again. “The last scene in the play is one of the reasons I knew I had to direct this piece,” said Lynn.
The play includes some startling, even bizarre visual images.
“There is a repeated symbolic burial of Dodge when he is covered in ears of corn and later when he is covered in the husks from those ears,” said Lynn.
In another scene, two characters steal the artificial leg of Bradley, who is an amputee, and tease him with it. “These images, among others, will shock the audience,” said Lynn.
James Lybarger and Pecano are handling the set and technical aspects of the production. Dorene White is stage manager.
Corn and its yellow color are prominent in the production, symbolically representing the heartland and Mother Earth.
“It represents this family and its fields being reborn,” said Lynn.