Theater: “Curse of the Starving Class” starring Christian Slater and Calista Flockhart

Sam Shepard never plays nice. Apparently, the playwright’s childhood was rough: he describes his father as “a dedicated alcoholic,” and as a teenager, Sam worked in a remote part of California on a ranch. This probably brought him in closer proximity to animals than other human beings.

This may have influenced the New Group’s revival of Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class”—because periodically a live sheep appears on stage.

Unnamed but credited as “Lola,” the sheep is safely fenced in and kept on a tight leash. She bleats at appropriate (and inappropriate) moments during the action, often synchronizing with the complaints of the dysfunctional Tate family, the protagonists of this shocking, often brilliant dark comedy.

The play opens in a mid-1970s kitchen somewhere out West, which patermilias Weston (Christian Slater) has destroyed during a drunken rage the night before. His wife Ella (Calista Flockhart) surveys the damage, pronounces she’s had enough of his misbehavior, and announces she is selling the house and moving with her two kids to Europe. She’s even engaged a slimy lawyer named Taylor (Kyle Beltran) to complete the sale without her husband’s content.

Meanwhile Ella’s daughter Emma (Stella Marcus) is also in the kitchen, preparing presentation boards for a school project. Her wacko brother Wesley (Cooper Hoffman) see this and promptly urinates on them.

Throughout the play, we see family members open the refrigerator door then slam it shut, complaining “there’s no food in this house.” This is eventually remedied by the return of Weston, who brings a bushel of artichokes from the desert where he’s bought an acre of land. He blames his subsequent bad behavior on the “curse” of nitroglycerin in his blood.

We also learn that in order to pay off loan sharks, Weston has already sold the family home to Ellis (Esau Pritechett), a beefy sinister-looking bar owner. This expands the story of family dysfunction into one of real estate drama as both spouses believe they have legitimately sold the house out from under the other’s nose.

Shepard wrote the play almost 50 years ago. But what’s amazing is how prescient he was about the future of America, especially how the middle class has basically disappeared, leaving only two classes—one hungry and one not.

“Curse” is a play that falls uncomfortably between hyper-realism and absurdity, and having the right cast and director (Scott Elliott) helps it succeed. Slater is terrific as Weston, making the transition from out-of-control alcoholic in Act 1 to delusional goofy redneck in Act II. I also liked Stella Marcus who imbued Ella with intelligence. She gave me hope that at least somebody in that family would get out of there alive.

I do feel sorry for the play’s stage manager and his/her crew, however, who have the arduous task of cleaning up the mess that’s made each performance —which ranges from shards of broken glass, piles of dirty laundry, to bits of breakfast strewn all over the floor.

If it’s violent, audacious, and somewhat vulgar, it just might be a play by Sam Shepard. And if it’s also relevant and feature a cute sheep named Lola in the cast, you have an even better reason to see “Curse of the Starving Class.” Wooden ewe say? Currently in previews at Pershing Square Signature Center.

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