Madness in drama has reached a … universal point of contact in the world of knife-edge dreams and hopes as realized by Sam Shepard….

The marvellous thing about Shepard is that he reads just as well as he plays. For the avant-garde this is unusual. Enthusiasts might be forgiven for defending some plays by saying things like—'Ah, but it was all in the way he masturbated.' Shepard has no need of such excuses. He is a dramatist.

La Turista is a dance and a drama without ever giving in entirely to either of those titles. It is total in its involvement of human feelings and it is up-to-date in reflecting the expanding theatrical imagination without ever becoming indisciplined. The play deals with the incurable state of mankind which is maimed by a state of over-civilization. That is perhaps a trifle crude as a capsule for something that...