Search

''Banks are loaning money right, left and center,'' the woman says with easy confidence, assuring her son that selling the house will be a cakewalk. ''Small family loans. People are building. Everyone wants a piece of land. It's the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or washing machine.'' Heh-heh. The words resonate with grim humor today in the 30th-anniversary revival of Sam Shepard's ''Curse of the Starving Class'' at the American Conservatory Theater here. Mr. Shepard's acrid comedy about a family in psychological and financial disarray never was and never will be a socioeconomic tract. But as homeowners from California to Florida scramble to stay afloat in response to the country's subprime mortgage crisis, the desperate maneuvers of the play's feuding spouses as they try to outwit creditors and lawyers and unload the family property assume a bleak, freaky new relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]