Curse of the Starving Class, which was first produced in New York in 1978, is the second play in what playwright Sam Shepard called his Family Trilogy. Along with Buried Child and True West, these domestic dramas reflect the dissolution of the American dream as it coincides with the disintegration of the idealized close-knit family. Underhandedness, cruelty, and alienation are always simmering just under the surface …
