True West is a
play written by playwright Sam Shepard. It was first performed at the Magic Theatre
in San Francisco, where Shepard was the resident playwright. The world premiere
of the play was on July 10, 1980. The production later moved to The Public Theatre
in New York City where it starred Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle. It was later
revived by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where it starred Gary
Sinise and John Malkovich in the leading roles. In 2000, Phillip Seymour
Hoffman and John C. Reilly played the leads on Broadway; they were both
nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for their performance.
The production also was nominated for Best Play and Best Director (Matthew
Warchus).
The play takes place in California some 30 miles east of
Los Angeles. The more immediate setting is a house in the suburbs. The story
revolves around two brothers who are not on the best of terms with each other.
There is the younger brother Austin who is a Hollywood screenwriter. Then there
is the older brother Lee who is a drifter and a thief. The story starts off with the two of them in
their mother’s kitchen while she is away on vacation in Alaska. Austin is
watching the house for his mother and Lee has come by to visit. Austin is using
his time there to try and write a screenplay but is continuously distracted by
Lee. Austin informs Lee that he must leave the house because a producer is
coming to discuss a script Austin is writing. Lee buddies up with the producer,
Saul and actually gives him an idea for a movie. Saul falls in love with the
idea and decides to put Austin’s script on hold to work on Lee’s idea. Saul
wants Austin to write the script for Lee but refuses. Lee then tries to write
the script himself but eventually gets Austin to help with it. Austin only does
so after he gets Lee to agree that he will take Austin with him to live in the
desert. Their mother returns home and finds them working on the screenplay.
Abruptly Lee decides that the script is a bad idea and abandons his deal with
Austin. Austin attacks Lee and the play ends with the two toe to toe with each
other.
One choice I particularly enjoyed was the dynamic of the
relationship between Lee and Austin. It’s a typical “good son bad son”
relationship with Austin being a successful screenwriter and Lee being a
drifter. Since Austin is the younger brother Lee still has somewhat of domination
over him though. You quickly see that Lee isn’t unintelligent because he is able
to sway the producer Saul to accept his story. It’s very easy to see the
contrast between the two but also the similarities. The dynamic switches though
when Lee’s story is accepted and Austin is the one in shame. Austin gets drunk
and his mannerisms become similar to that of Lee’s. Then you see Lee lose his
carefree mentality and has a uptight mood similar to that of Austin’s while he
is trying to work on his story.
Another choice I found interesting was how they referred
to the father as “the old man”. This made it apparent that they had a very
distant relationship with their father but they were still connected to him
because they kept mentioning him. It became apparent that they felt obliged to
help him but they also wanted to do anything they could to not end up like him.
Also Lee and Austin’s behavior on alcohol seemed to bring the light why their
father was in the current state he was in.
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