As a playwright, his work was mostly family-drama. Thus, his major plays centered around families and they discussed domestic problems faced by typical families. He did dabble in science-fiction and social commentary at some point( eg The Unseen Hand).

In his family- dramas, problems do not arise externally but from within the family members themselves. These include struggles for authority over the family, concealment of dark family secrets etc.[2] Such plays included Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class. His aesthetics dealt with everyday objects and scenery. His characters are mostly laymen who engage in unadorned dialogues.  Thus, Shepard’s works could be categorized under realism[1].

Most of Shepard’s realist works are biographical when juxtaposed with his family history.  For example, the family described in Buried Child is similar to the household he grew up in. All major characters in the play have a  parallel in Shepard’s family. For example, Dodge, the old grandfather in Buried Child is an adaptation of Shepards own veteran father who, like Dodge, sat on a sofa watching baseball most of the time[3].

A scene from Buried Child, a Broadway production

 

[1] Sarah Mead Wyman (2016) Sam Shepard’s Buried Child: Unearthing the Family Drama, ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 29:1, 40-42

[2]Crank, J. (2013). Understanding Sam Shepard. Columbia: South Carolina University Press.

[3]Skelton, S. B. (2017). Sam Shepard and the Aesthetics of Performance by Emma Creedon (review). Comparative Drama 51(3), 424-427. Western Michigan University. Retrieved May 26, 2018, from Project MUSE database.