About the Author

SAM SHEPARDwas the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of more than fifty-five plays, three story collections, and two works of prose fiction. As an actor, he appeared in more than sixty films, and received an Oscar nomination in 1984 forThe Right Stuff.He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collectionGreat Dream of Heaven.In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy, and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. He died in 2017.

Reviews

“The wonder and charm of Heartless come from the very real passion behind it and the poetry within it.” —The Village Voice

“The playwright’s most inspired and imaginative work in years. . . . Shepard’s poetic sense of the absurdities of human congress is pitch perfect and the drama never flags.” —The Huffington Post

“As much as any American playwright, Mr. Shepard understands that every family is insane in its own special way. . . . [He] has secured his place in the hall of fame for portraits of domestic dementia.” —The New York Times
 
“Surreal and haunting.” —Newsday

"Spookily engrossing. . . . The play is full of silences that have the force of poetry." —Bloomberg News

"Pure Shepard. . . . There are great, tantalizing lines like, 'Another fable in the Los Angeles canon of hysterical imaginings,' which may be a description of the play itself." —The Philadelphia Inquirer