Sam Shepard’s TRUE WEST, like most of his works, is inspired by myths of American life and popular culture. The award-winning play originally premiered in 1980 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.
Shepard’s plays are generally set in very ordinary, everyday circumstances, but some really bizarre things happen. Almost to the point of hilarity. Shepard has an amazing skill for developing characters that are so interesting you are able to see past the bizarre and reconcile their actions with the reality of sanity. TRUE WEST definitely fits this bill, giving the audience an uneasy dose of creepy and comical in one helping.
TRUE WEST is about the sibling rivalry between two estranged brothers. Austin (Sean Kanan), is a college educated, Hollywood screenwriter working on a screenplay while house sitting for his mother. Enter his older brother, Lee (David Steen), a drifter and a thief who has been living in the desert. Instead of robbing the neighborhood, Lee steals Austin’s production deal with a pitch about an idea for a western causing Austin to lose his mind. There is just one problem. Lee can’t type. By the end the brothers have switched roles and nearly killed each other, but were never closer.
Palm Canyon Theatre’s production of TRUE WEST puts on display the typical ambition with which this small company attacks its big projects. J. W. Lane’s scenic and lighting designs bring three dimensional reality to the crazy story as it unwinds. Mark Blanchard directs the seasoned cast with fineness and has pulled together an ensemble that is second to none.
Kanan and Steen presented their characters with such fluidity that I felt I was in the house with them observing the unfolding of this sordid chapter in their lives. They were able to make the stark and warped dialog flow seamlessly and reduce dramatically the distance between the stage and audience bringing us into their unusually strange and twisted codependent relationship.
If you are in or near the Desert Cities of Southern California, don’t miss this opportunity to see an award-winning play by an acclaimed and respected playwright.
TRUE WEST runs thru June 8th at Palm Canyon Theatre in Palm Springs, CA. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.palmcanyontheatre.org. or call 760.323.5123.
