A Lie Of The Mind: A Play in Three Acts

Sam Shepard was a prolific American playwright, having written 58 plays over his career from the 1960s into the 2010s. Though Shepard also wrote short fiction and essays, he is best known for his plays, which focus on the darkness of unconventional American life. Shepard won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Buried Child, the second play in a quintet that ends with A Lie of the Mind. He won10 Obie Awards, which is the record for this award. Shepard was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.

A Lie of the Mind reflects elements in Shepard’s own upbringing, such as being in a military family that often moved between bases. Shepard’s father was a pilot in World War II who, like Jake’s father, had an alcohol use disorder. These details add an autobiographical element to the play, implying that Jake or Frankie could represent Shepard himself, while some critics suggest that both characters represent different elements of Shepard. The fractured nature of the piece fits with his works’ themes of dysfunction and fragmentation in the American consciousness. Shepard’s play continues to be performed, including a notable production in 2010 directed by Ethan Hawk.