The Curse of the Starving Class at Stanford University Pigott Theater

Starring Stanford Summer Theater veterans Marty Pistone, Courtney Walsh, Ben Fisher, and Max Sosna-Spear, “Curse of the Starving Class” is a comedy with a difference. An American family filled with strangely lovable characters lives out its delusions and fantasies with hilarious energy and willful denial. Like a lottery whose payoff rises each week but no one ever wins the jackpot, “Curse of the Starving Class” leads us on over the rainbow, always hungry for something more, and for some way home.

Written in 1976, “Curse of the Starving Class” is eerily prophetic its world built on bad loans, speculations in land and real estate and the little man’s struggle against the corporate “zombies” who run the country into the ground while laughing their way to the bank. A hilarious, brilliantly crafted, and deeply affecting play, “Curse of the Starving Class” takes us back though our cultural history and forward into our wildest dreams.

Directed by Rush Rehm (Artistic Director, Stanford Summer Theater), starring Marty Pistone (Weston), Courtney Walsh (Ella), Max Sosna-Spear (Wesley), Jessica Waldman (Emma), with Ben Fisher (Taylor), Keith Marshall (Ellis), Ben Knoll (Slater), and Michael Vang (Malcom, Emerson). Set design by Chad Bonaker, costumes by Connie Strayer.