[Sam Shepard] has a tremendous ability to make words bring the imagination of an audience to life. (p. 12)
Distances, levels, and points of view are important to Shepard's plays. [In Icarus' Mother the] pilot observing the characters below, and the characters observing him above are both fascinated by each other. The pilot is literally burning up his excess energy: he trails it in the sky and writes the formula for it in the air. We can assume he took off from the earth and separated himself from the others. If we can accept Howard's explanation of a pilot's situation, a pilot, however much he tries to maintain control above, is always tempted to look down. What he sees is beautiful to him, but it also makes him dizzy. In the play, he is attracted by the lusty women as well. In showing off his energy to them, he goes as high as possible, then dives into the sea—returns to his origins, becomes earthbound again. Obviously this parallels the Icarus legend. Man attempts to be like a god, but is sent crashing down to human mortality again. The play, thus, makes a statement about what happens to those who joyously attain extreme states of individuality—whose excess energy leads them to human attempts at attaining spiritual or abstract goals; and the statement seems rather pessimistic. Death seems to ultimately conquer the spirit….
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