Review: Eagle Rock Theatre Company's UNSEEN SHEPARD at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Sam Shepard is universally known: he was a Hollywood actor, screenwriter, director and playwright who wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. New York Magazine dubbed Shepard "the greatest American playwright of his generation."

The Eagle Rock Theatre Company from Los Angeles premiered their newest play Unseen Shepard at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The play was written by Nic D'Avirro and Matt Braaten, and the cast included Matt Foyer, Cameron Meyer and Matt Braaten. This one-act play is a surreal account of Sam Shepard's last night alive, when he is confronted by versions of characters from his plays, all demanding a rewrite. Each character has their own issues with the playwright, who at first does not recognize them and does not know how to get rid of them.

The play features characters such as writers, cowboys, abusive husbands and suffering women, who are all trapped in their own reality, and as one of the female characters, a version of Crow from The Tooth of Crime states: "Why didn't you write women to be stronger and not suffer so much?'' This character cannot accept the idea of her suffering and that of certain other female characters (versions of May and Beth). They visit Shepard to try and convince him that they deserve more, and this represents the main confrontation between the playwright and his creations.

Each appearance of a character makes Shepard more and more agitated including a Lee-like character who announces: "You gotta change us." This character aspires to become a successful writer, so his demand is to realize that dream. Shepard's plays are full of pain and family tragedy, and these points are explored in this play through versions of his characters confronting the author.

Unseen Shepard includes not only the last moments between characters and the playwright, but also draws out an invisible thread that is used to show Shepard's personal tragedy, family history, his parents' relationship, and the author's relationships with women as well. Surrealist elements are included in the play, just as Shepard often used in his writing style.

The play explores Shepard's last night before dying, but at the same time you can trace a sort of apology for Shepard. At the end, we see a female character without a name who was is transformed from the Crow-like character to become a strong, independent woman, who takes Shepard's hand and leads him to the other side, much like an angel. We are almost able to see Shepard at peace in his final moments. These characters will not let him go without a fight, his last fight with himself and his fears. In the final sequence of Unseen Shepard, we observe the author possibly find his freedom and peace of mind at last.

Unseen Shepard was written by Nic D'Avirro and Matt Braaten and produced by Eagle Rock Theatre Company in Los Angeles.