Sam Shephard’s iconic 1977 “Curse of the Starving Class” is enjoying its second revival production at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The 2019 Terry Kinney revival (also at Pershing Square Signature Center) starred Maggie Siff and David Warshofsky as Ella and Weston. The current revival, directed by Scott Elliot and starring Calista Flockhart as Ella and Christian Slater as Weston, focuses on the discontent of the Tate family living somewhere in rural California. The scene is Ella and Weston Tate’s kitchen which is in complete disarray and currently without glass in the kitchen window and the sliding door that leads to the outside (kudos to set designer Arnulfo Maldonado).

Weston (a pitch perfect and at-the-top-of-his-game Christian Slater) is described as “unable to hold a steady job, absent from his home ninety percent of the time with a jail record.” Weston is responsible for the broken glass resulting from his being locked out by his wife Ella (a broken but formidable Calista Flockhart) who is tired of her husband coming home drunk after spending most of the evening at the aptly named ‘Alibi Club.” Their children Wesley (an outstanding and contemplative Cooper Hoffman) and Emma (an equally outstanding and broken Stella Marcus) do their best to “clean up” after their parents but the damage done to them and to the family system is far too advanced for “housekeeping” intervention.

It would be simplistic to blame Weston for the Tate family’s curse. True, he is a fall-down drunk, perhaps an alcoholic. His disease and the family members’ complicity could explain the systemic failure of the family system. Perhaps their inability to realize the American Dream could explain the family’s demise. But Sam Shephard’s narrative does not focus on the Tate family’s inability to achieve the “American Dream; rather, the focus of the well-developed dramatic arc is the Tate family’s “curse” and “starvation.”

The Tates are starving for intimacy, Starving for some kind of connection. Without that human connection that defines ‘family,’ the Tates talk to the refrigerator which they open, and slam shut throughout every day of their starving lives. They do not connect with one another: they blame one another for their plight and scream at one another when logic and reason have long left the conversation. Any insightful thoughts are internal (signified by each character breaking the fourth wall and “speaking” those significant and unspoken truths directly to the audience).

Ella defines the curse: “We pass it on. We inherit it and pass it down and then pass it down again. It goes on and on like that without us.” Weston’s alcoholism, Ella’s deep disappointment in herself and in her husband, Emma’s desire to flee to Mexico “and learn to be a mechanic and work on four-wheel-drive vehicles that broke down” and Wesley’s baseless belief that he alone can make things work by repairing the house and joining the “California Avocado Association” to “make a living” are the result of the “curse” they have inherited and passed on.

This “curse” is not some ethereal phenomenon. Their “starving” has little to do with the empty refrigerator (a full-fledged character in this drama). Their “curse” has been from the start their inability to be honest about their past, aware of their contribution to the present, and their complete unwillingness to have a vision of the future or how to get there. Their “curse is the family members’ inability to cope with Westons’ transformed “self” inserting itself into the family dysfunction which causes its continuation to be impossible. Weston breaks the cycle and gives the family an opportunity to release itself from the “curse,” to stop “starving.” But it is too late to mend the broken promises, the vindictiveness, the passive-aggressive dynamic, the detritus of the family structure (characterized by the failing structure they live in), and the hopelessness they have created.

The remainder of the ensemble cast (David Anzuelo, Kyle Beltran, and Jeb Kreager) participate in scenes that carefully exemplify how Weston’s and Ella’s lack of vision have starved their family of affection and any hope for a healthy future. It is difficult to parse these important scenes without a host of disclaimers. Think real estate deals gone terribly wrong, a slaughtered sheep, an exploded car, an out-of-control horse, appropriate frontal nudity, and a deceased family member to get closer to understanding the Tate family’s curse.

This is a “Curse of the Starving Class” that will be difficult to match in its perfection and its stark examination of a family system gone wrong of its own accord. Scott Ellis’s astute direction, the exceptional quality of the cast and the expertise of the creative team (scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Catherine Zuber, lighting design by Jeff Croiter and sound design by Leah Gelpe) make this revival a must-see production.