Where is “true west?”
By Paul Atreides
Author, Playwright, and Theatre Critic at EatMoreArtVegas.compaul-atreides.com
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama in 1983, Sam Shepard’s True West can now be classified as an American Classic. The script is gritty and brutal as it explores the competitive nature of masculinity amid the jealous relationship of brothers.
Shepard’s plays are never straightforward, which is what makes them so attractive to actors. There are myriad levels and meanings behind his words, just as there are a myriad of levels in all of us. We can be and are a multitude of selves. Director Jake Staley focuses on bullying and brutality and misses the lower, more subtle tones of envy and an undercurrent of love. These two characters are brothers, and there are times when they share anecdotes and childhood memories and laugh together, but that sense of caring doesn’t ring true because it hasn’t been hinted.
They are yin and yang to each other. Austin, played by Wilam Fleming, is a screenwriter with a standard, settled and stable life. Lee, played by Ryan Ruckman, is a drifter, grifter, and petty thief. At least they appear to be on the surface. Ruckman delivers a boisterous, loud, obnoxious, and bullying Lee that very rarely lets up in the first act as he threatens and intimidates his brother. It’s pretty much all on one level. Fleming delivers a nuanced first act, fearful and anxious and trying to appease Lee.
When Saul, played to perfection by Ben Lowey, shows up and drops Austin’s screenplay in favor of producing a story arc Lee has pitched, the brother’s roles are suddenly reversed. Lee sobers up to work on his screenplay, begging for help, and Austin gets drunk. Fleming takes a slow dive into becoming the belligerent one, no longer afraid of his brother. They rather become one another.
That’s when the whole devolves into chaos. If you’re unfamiliar with the play, I don’t want to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that when their mother, played by Valerie Carpenter Bernstein beautifully displaying degrees of both her son’s personalities, arrives unexpectedly, and you think it all calms down, you would be wrong.
The play takes place in the desert home of their mother outside Los Angeles among the incessant daytime heat and constant nighttime howling coyotes and chirping crickets. Diane Walton’s set is beautiful with the surrounding desert visible through large windows, and Josh Wroblewski’s lighting enhances it all.
Where production value falls short is with the sound design of Constance Taschner. When Lee says throughout the play that the coyotes and crickets are constant and maddening, we don’t get the expected, ever-present sounds for the night scenes.
Still, this production delivers on the playwright’s promised message: Though the setting is the Pacific Southwest, it’s quite clear that “true west” could be and is, in fact, anywhere and everywhere. In so many ways, we are each other.
What: True West
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Monday; 2 p.m. Sundays through March 3
Where: 4340 S. Valley View Blvd, Suite 210
Tickets: $35 - $45 (www.apublicfit.org)
Grade: **** Scrumptious
Producer: A Public Fit; Artistic Director: Ann-Marie Pereth; Producing Director: Joseph D. Kucan; Director: Jake Staley; Scenic Design: Diane Walton; Lighting Design: Joshua Wroblewski; Sound Design: Constance Taschner; Costume Design: Hannah Prochaska; Production Stage Manager: Sabrina Christensen
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