The Late Henry Moss - Almeida Theatre

henryThe initialinspiration forHenry Moss was ashort story by Frank O’Connor ‘TheLate Henry Conran’ (1931). Shepardstarted to write the play in 1989and completed it ten years later. Adevelopment of the idea iscontained in one of his shortstories ‘See You in My Dreams’,contained in the anthology ‘CruisingParadise’ (1996).“I grew up in a condition where themale influences around me wereprimarily alcoholics and extremelyviolent and, at the same time, likelost children, not knowing how todeal with it. Instead, they wereplunked down on the desert notknowing how they got there.”“In a way I prefer hopelessness tohope. I think there’s more hope inhopelessness.”“My dad came from an extremely ruralfarm community – wheat farmers - inIllinois, and next thing he knows he’sflying B-24s over the South Pacific,over Romania, dropping bombs andkilling people he couldn’t even see.”“There is no escape from thefamily…even if you didn’t know whoyour mother and father were, if younever met them, you are stillintimately, inevitably, and entirelyconnected to who brought you intothe world – through a long, longchain, regardless of whether youknew them face to face or not. Youcould be the most outcast orphanand yet you are still inevitablyconnected to this chain.”Extracts from an interview with Sam Shepard byMatthew Roudane, 2000, from The CambridgeCompanion to Sam Shepard, CUP 2002, ed.Matthew Roudane