Buried Child

Amy Madigan, Nat Wolff, Taissa Farmiga, and Ed Harris in Buried Child. Photo credit: Monique Carboni

To be honest, the main reason I wanted to see Buried Child was because I was intrigued by the presence of Nat Wolff in a Sam Shepard play. Wolff gained fame (among the tween set and parents) on the Nickelodeon show The Naked Brothers Band. I've been impressed with his work in the film versions of the John Green novels The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. This play about a dysfunctional family is a far cry from the YA world.

Wolff plays Vince, who returns to his grandparents' house to find that nobody remembers him. That's not even the strangest thing that happens in a play that involves corn growing where it hasn't been planted in years, hints of incest, and something else that you can guess from the title. But this Pulitzer Prize winner isn't as shocking or interesting as it might have been in 1978. Wolff is fine in his role, but it's Ed Harris as the drunken, battered Dodge who makes the best case for bringing this play back.