True West
Reviewed by Taylor Kass
The Group Rep
Through May 8th
RECOMMENDED
When True West premiered in 1980, the West – as a land of rugged individuality and personal reinvention — was already gone. But Sam Shepard’s taut two-hander about the futile search for authenticity is still sharp in 2022, when there’s even less truth to be found in a culture saturated with artifice. The Group Rep’s tense and viciously smart production shines in its simplicity; it’s Shepard at his most gripping.
Screenwriter Austin (William Wilson) is planning to use his time house-sitting for his mom as an opportunity to work on his latest script, but his plans are derailed when his estranged brother Lee (James Lemire) makes an unexpected and unwelcome visit. As siblings so often are, these brothers couldn’t be more different – Austin is a tightly-wound family man who plays by the rules, Lee is a burly grifter who’s been living alone in the desert for three months. When Austin’s producing partner Saul Kimmer (Jason Madera) visits him, Lee takes the opportunity to pitch his very own Western, a “true-to-life” story. Whether it’s the idea itself or Lee’s threatening presence, Saul agrees to help Lee make his movie – Lee just has to write it first, with or without Austin’s help.
Director Brooklyn Sample’s meticulous staging teases out the unstable relationship between the two brothers – the most mundane interactions turn explosively violent in an instant. To go from literally choking each other back to casually drinking coffee together is a dynamic you can only have with a sibling. The brothers try on each other’s lives to see if they fit; they clumsily cobble together a relationship that’s a cease-fire at best.
Lemire as Lee is an ideal Shepard leading man – roughed-up, rootless, and vaguely haunted. But Wilson’s multi-faceted portrayal of Austin is particularly remarkable as it nose-dives into darkness. Lee’s very presence visibly grates on Austin’s sense of self until everything that keeps him tethered to reality – family, career, trips to Safeway – pale in comparison to the need to flee into the desert in pursuit of something, anything true.
This production is driven by a sense of desperation: is the American idealization of “the West” just a mirage? If there is any meaning to be found in our insatiable westward expansion, does it dry up as soon as you try to put it on a page? It’s ironic that a play about the futility of reflecting truth in art does just that.
The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood; Sat. 4 p.m., Sun. 7p.m.; through May 8. www.thegrouprep.com. Running time: 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission.
