SAM SHEPARD | PLAYWRIGHT | ACTOR | DEAD
Forgotten Days: A love affair with Sam Shepard
My ‘complicated’ relationship with America’s finest playwright and fair to middling actor, exactly five years after his death
“I’m not a big fan of anniversaries.” Sam Shepard
But there we have to disagree Mr Shepard. I love them. I love picturing the length of time since some film came out or a war ended, or in this case, since someone died. On the 27th of July this year it was five years since the world lost my favorite writer: Sam Shepard. He was the classic outsider maverick, whose writing rarely sat in the mainstream but was always vitally important. I first heard of him as a teenager, newly left home and at university, impressionable and eager for the wilder side of life. Sam played a big part in that. When he died, I wrote a eulogy of how our lives entangled but never tried to publish it. I hope you’re inspired to pick up one of his books or see one of his plays or films by the time you finish. I know I’ll be Cruising Paradise (1996) once the last full stop goes down.
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The woman I’d just lost my virginity to was being dragged across the stage, whilst vomiting chewed up banana. She had broken her arm during the dress rehearsal and should still have been in hospital. Instead, she’d…
