[2] Action was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, in October 1974, directed by Nancy Meckler.
[1][3] The original cast was as follows: The play was also performed at New York's American Place Theatre with a companion piece, Shepard's monologue Killer's Head,[1] premiered with it as a double bill.
In 1975, Sam Shepard directed a revival of the play at the Magic Theater in San Francisco, where he was artist in residence.
[4] Action follows two men and two women stuck in a house on Christmas, after some implied disastrous event has taken place in the world.
They attempt to cook a holiday dinner and perform other domestic rituals, from the mundane like hanging laundry, to the absurd like tap dancing and pretending to be bears.