SOURCE: “Food and Drink in Shepard's Theater,” in Modern Drama, Vol. 31, No. 2, June, 1988, pp. 175-83.

In the following essay, Whiting analyzes the use of food and drink in the staging of Shepard's plays, theorizing that they are significant contributors to setting the mood in various scenes.

Half of Sam Shepard's published plays have food or drink onstage at or very near the beginning, and in at least half of his plays food and drink play an important role. Except perhaps for lobster in Cowboy Mouth and tequila in the same play and in Fool for Love, these are always very ordinary comestibles, but never are they used by Shepard merely to achieve an effect of realism or naturalism, nor are they ever presented to the spectator in an unremarkable or banal manner. In one way or another, Shepard always makes them noticeable and significant. From the beginning he...