Buried Child (2004)

When Vince brings his girlfriend, Shelly, home to meet his family, she is at first charmed by the “normal” looking farm house which she compares to a “Norman Rockwell cover or something”–that’s before she actually meets his crazy family–his ranting, alcoholic grandparents and their two sons: Tilden, a hulking semi-idiot, and Bradley, who has lost one leg to a chain saw.

Strangely, no one seems to remember Vince at first, and they treat him as an intruder. Eventually, however, they seem to accept him as a part of their violently dysfunctional family. Gradually, the family’s dark secret begins to come clear.

• A National Theatre Education booklet can be found on the National Theatre’s website.