Back in the sixties I was playing with the idea of a war of language—a duel where words were the actual weapons, the bullets. When I arrived in London in the early seventies, a largely unheralded play, AC/DC by Heathcote Williams, struck me as being an opening in that direction. Not only was the language uncanny but it also had the aura of assault about it. Bertolt Brecht’s In the Jungle of Cities was another catalyst, but I wanted to make a totally American rendition and wound up somewhere between the old classic Western and rockstar nihilism. In 1972 (when the play was first performed at the Open Space in London) it seemed to me that rock and roll, as we had known it up till then, was being transformed into a river of sameness. It was beginning to lose its original fire and brass balls, much the same as American cars lost their verve in the transition from the fifties to the sixties. Long story short—the subject was “change,” and I wanted to place each of these characters (Crow and Hoss) directly across the fence from each other. The original production was perceived as futuristic, verging on science fiction, but by 1996, twenty-four years later, it seemed dated to me and somewhat hackneyed. The DJ character felt like a cartoon. Hoss seemed needlessly melodramatic, and the language of Crow had lost its sting. So, again, I set about revamping the entire play through rehearsals at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York. This process of rewriting a play while it’s in rehearsal can be nerve-racking to actors and directors, and I’m sure the production suffered as a result, but in the end the play now is less simplistic and has a rhythmic flow that it lacked in its first rendition.

Sam Shepard
July 2005

Tooth of Crime (Second Dance) was produced by Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Thomas C. Proehl, Managing Director; Elliot Fox, Associate Director) and Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Suzanne Schwartz Davidson, Producing Director; Carol Fishman, Associate Producer) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City on December 15, 1996.

Directed by Bill Hart
Music and lyrics by T Bone Burnett
Set design by E. David Cosier
Costume design by Teresa Snider-Stein
Lighting design by Anne Militello
Sound design by David Van Tieghem
Video design by Kevin Cunningham
Musical direction by Loren Toolajian
Production stage managed by Ruth Kreshka and James FitzSimmons
Casting direction by Jerry Beaver and Associates

The Tooth of Crime received its premiere at the Open Space, London, on July 17, 1972.

Directed by Charles Marowitz
Assistant directed by Walter Donohue
Set design by Robin Don
Music composed by Sam Shepard
Music arranged and played by Blunderpuss

Act I