Tilden then enters the scene with an armful of corn, which he claims grew in the field outside. Halie leaves for church dressed in black and tells the oldest son, Tilden, to look after Dodge. They also talk about another son, Bradley, an amputee who comes to cut Dodge's hair forcefully while he sleeps Dodge is wearing a baseball cap to ward off this inevitability. They talk about their beloved son Ansel, who was purportedly murdered years earlier by his wife on their wedding night. He occasionally sneaks drinks from a bottle hidden in the couch it is evident that he is an alcoholic. Halie is not visible in the scene as she is yelling from upstairs, while Dodge is sitting on the basement sofa. The scene begins with the couple having a conversation with one another, discussing events of their past. In an old farmhouse on a failed plot of land in Illinois, the characters Dodge (in his 70s) and Halie (in her 60s), an old married couple, are introduced. The Broadway revival in 1996 received five Tony nominations, including Best Play.

In 1979, Shepard also won the Obie Award for Playwriting. The play depicts the fragmentation of the American nuclear family in a context of disappointment and disillusionment with American mythology and the American Dream, the 1970s rural economic slowdown, and the breakdown of traditional family structures and values. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright.

Cover of Playbill for 1996 Broadway productionīuried Child is a play written by Sam Shepard that was first presented in 1978.

Seven plays by sam shepard