Kicking a Dead Horse

by Sam Shepard

A solitary man digs a hole in the ground, near a dead horse. Amidst the clutter of food and equipment stands Hobart Struther, who has ridden all the way out to the middle of nowhere on a holy mission. But one day into his “Great Sojourn,” things are looking bleak. His horse has choked to death, he's miles away from civilization, and there's not a person around to talk to – other than himself. As Hobart examines his rise — how he built a vast art collection while ensconced in a comfortable Park Avenue lifestyle — he digs deep into his own history, unearthing truths about his past while still struggling to find the answers he needs. With Shepard's linguistic flair, subtle humor, and probing insights, Kicking a Dead Horse is an invigorating addition to the works of one of America's most innovative playwrights.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction

67 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2007

About the author

Sam Shepard was an American artist who worked as an award-winning playwright, writer and actor. His many written works are known for being frank and often absurd, as well as for having an authentic sense of the style and sensibility of the gritty modern American west. He was an actor of the stage and motion pictures; a director of stage and film; author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs; and a musician.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Look, there’s a saying in the cowboy culture that a real cowboy has the horseshit on the outside of his boots.” - Sam Shepard

This one man play opens with Hobart Struther stuck in the desert attempting to bury his horse who has just choked to death on his oats. As he talks to himself and the audience we learn that he is a successful art dealter who has abandonded his life to go on a mission to find "authenticity". In his efforts to bury the horse in a grave too shallow he loses or tosses aside all his Western gear, including his cowboy hat.

Kicking a Dead Horse has the black humor and character development I have enjoyed in many Shepard plays and short stories, however, it lacks the same emotional depth of previous work that has often moved me to tears.

[Jack Rousseau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here, as in other works by Shepard, the idea of the "Wild Wild West" (pg. 37) is explored. Contrary to our belief that we have "closed the frontiers" (pg. 62), Shepard demonstrates that we haven't bested nature. We have stepped out of the ring in our fight against nature; we have stepped out of the ring and into our cozy suburban homes or crowded metropolitan cities.

The play follows Hobart Struther, a man stranded in the desert after his horse drops dead. Shepard makes frequent use of the familiar cliche about beating a dead horse (or "kicking" a dead horse, which may be an intentional variations) - but what dead horse is he beating? (The cliche itself is a dead horse that Shepard is beating.)

Just as Hobart stands for all of us, he stands for the first pilgrims who took on the untamed frontier. He acknowledges his respect for the pilgrims. He acknowledges his past, which stands for America's past...

"Ten years left to still throw a leg over a horse, like I used to; still fish waist-deep in a western river; still sleep out in the open on flat ground under the starry canopy - like I used to." (pg. 18)

Contrary to his respect for the first pilgrims, he condemns them for killing Crazy Horse. He even compares Crazy Horse to Christ, demanding recognition...

Don't you think there ought to be a National Day of Rest for someone like that? A true American Hero. Close the schools. Close the post office. Five minutes of pure silence across the nation. Five minutes of pure silence." (pg. 42)

These contradictions accumulate. They seem to have grown over the years and festered inside of Hobart - perhaps Hobart is the Absurd man, removed from his transcendental roots. But here, rather than seeking out transcendence, Hobart focuses on the comforts he has sacrificed...

"No road - no car - no tiny house - no friendly 7-Eleven. Nada." (pg. 10)

It seems wherever Hobart is, he is preoccupied not with what he has, not with what he could have, but what he is lacking.

Hobart has been picked up by Shepard and dropped into the thick of our suspended battle with nature. The "ten years" referred to in the quote above is Hobart's perceived decline. He's getting older, softer, weaker. He's lucky if he has ten good years left. He wants to go back to nature - why? To prove something to himself? To reclaim his past?

Rather than reclaim his past, Hobart ends up burying his past. He physically buries objects representative of his past (including the horse). But this is not a victory for Hobart. This is defeat. Rather than digging up gold or other natural treasures, Hobart is forced to bury his possessions - knowing that he will be unable to carry them without a horse.

The desolation of Hobart's situation, the bleak landscape, the unchanging state that permeates the action of the play... all are evocative of Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT.

"Haven't I already been through all of this?" (pg. 61-62)

Hobart will attempt to reclaim his transcendental roots. Nature has bested him, has denied him the transcendence he sought ("What exactly did you have in mind? What could you hope to find? There's nothing out here." - pg. 27). That he sought transcendence is confirmed when, having given up, he turns to prayer...

"What if I tried praying at this late date?" (pg. 63)

[Michael Kunze · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old man is stranded in a dreamlike wasteland due to the death of his horse, and must decide what to carry with him, and what to leave behind. The play is a one man piece that in its premise and language is reminiscent of Waiting for Godot, and fits neatly into the lineage of Shepard's plays. The man is a New York art dealer who made his fortune selling the artwork of the old west, and following trouble with his wife at home has journeyed deep into the badlands in search of the old west and that ever elusive beast of authenticity. The language is as obtuse and as meaty as Shepard ever is, and although it is written as a monologue it could be argued that the words form a dialogue the man has with his own bitter conscience. Throughout the play the man questions and discards his identity as a cowboy of the lost west, literally throwing his hat and boots into the giant pit he has dug to bury his horse in, followed by the horse itself.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam Beckett meets John Ford, defracted through Shepard's long-standing fascination with the West as Myth. My initial response to the staging in my head is that it's probably a tad too derivative of Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape to make the Shepard A-List, but it's a good piece of work. The central image of burying the dead horse is tied to the central theme of Authenticity, to which Sam does not subscribe. For me, the best bits were the comic turns--the central character addressing the audience and arguing with himself--and the serious confrontation with loneliness as the play nears the end.

[GKW · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the lone central character takes stock of his situation, his dialogue with himself reveals the use of language alongside the material trappings of his expedition in the story he attempts to shape for himself. It is interesting to consider this well written play not only as a meditation on the personal and societal functions of language, but as a gesture towards the trade-offs and limitations of the words we use.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting play. Lots of dark humor, cursing, and kicking a dead horse.

[Jessica Timmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book wasn't very interesting to see, however I would definately love to see the play in theatre. It would probably be more interesting then.

[Drew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw the original NYC production of this play in 2008 and didn't like it one bit. But I felt the same about "A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations)" when I initially saw that one in 2014 and then, when I read that particular script years later, fairly recently in fact, I discovered it was pretty brilliant. No such luck with "Kicking a Dead Horse." On the page, this play remains just as tedious and bloated as I remembered. Shepard's late-career soliloquy re: a man who can't get his horse's corpse to cooperate with his burial is just a lot of senseless Americana gibberish before and after the unexciting appearance of a silent woman in a slip. The comedic bits involving rope that gets tangled around the speaker's legs aren't funny; the philosophizing about the Old West has been done better repeatedly by the late writer himself. I'm a huge fan of Shepard but this script may be his worst. I don't think he became less interesting when he got older: "A Particle of Dread," "The God of Hell," and "Heartless" are each fascinating pieces trafficking his go-to themes. But "Kicking a Dead Horse" is definitely a low point in his remarkable career.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feels like an appropriate culmination of Shepard's career. Looking back, ruefully and without nostalgia, while turning a cynical eye towards all of his accomplishments. Fat lot of good all of that does him now, being stuck alone in the middle of nowhere with a dead horse.

Not sure what the consensus is on this, but I found it extremely moving. Would be fascinated to see how someone would pull this off on the stage, what with Stephen Rea (with whom it premiered, and to whom this pressing is dedicated) frequently conversing with the titular dead horse (a manifestation of his own insecurities and the like).

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes difficult experiences make us stronger and sometimes they end with us at the bottom of a deep hole with a dead horse. Without hindsight (or a little foreshadowing), we never know which ending is meant for us.

The play is a bit heavy handed and dated, and isn't the most compelling, but it works well as a metaphor for all of the things holding us back in life and our difficulty (or inability) to let them go.

[Michael Fuhrman]

“Maybe there’s still some life left in him. Why else would he be resisting”