The tooth of crime.

This film documents and to some degree rearranges the scenes of TPG's production. In 'The Tooth of Crime' Shepard draws on popular/mythic figures and motifs of the American imaginary such as the cowboy, the rock star, the girl friend, the disc-jockey, and the drifter-outsider. The language of the play is rhythmic with a richness of alliteration and syncopation that The Performance Group actors further embroidered through their verbophysical techniques to produce harmonies, tensions, and emotional and physical states. The drama embodies the contradictions inherent in a star system that creates 'personalities' only to discard them when they are no longer commercially productive. Using their own version of rock music, TPG explores in a complex physical environment a world of gangsters and urban cowboys. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics

The performance presents a myriad of comic book characters that underscore the deceptions and failures of the 'American Dream.' The subtleties of the characterization, environmental theater mise-en-scene, music, and movement make this production unique. Because the environment makes viewing all of the action from one place impossible, spectators flow with the action from one part of the theater to another. The performance of Spalding Gray as Hoss is perhaps his best work in the 'regular' theater. Richard Schechner is a theater director, performance theorist and university professor known for being one of the founders of the academic discipline of Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Schechner combines his work in anthropology with innovative approaches to performance of all kinds including ritual, drama, environmental theater, political rallies, dance, music, etc. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics

In order to consider how performance can be understood not just as an object of study, but also as an active intellectual-artistic practice. He is the editor of 'TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies.' His books include 'Environmental Theater, ' 'The Future of Ritual, ' 'Performance Theory, ' 'Between Theater and Anthropology' and 'Performance Studies: An Introduction.' As of 2007, his books have been translated into 14 languages. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics