True West

“There’s no such thing as the West anymore! It’s dried up! It’s a dead issue!”

– Austin in True West

In the late 1970s, Sam Shepard wrote these words that, perhaps, ring even more true today. I an age of globalism, with the World economy merging into one giant web of commerce, everywhere is west of everywhere; and everywhere is east of everywhere as well.

As a child of the 70s, I grew up watching actors like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood star in “Westerns.” As a movie genre, the typical Western is set in the American “Old West” of the 1800s, centered on a nomadic character who acts as the moral compass in an otherwise lawless society. There is also a strong emphasis on the theme of man (or woman) versus nature. As the movie producer Saul notes in the play, it is “Something about the land.”

But has a “True West” ever existed? As a product of Hollywood, our society’s ideas about “The West” are have been fabricated from the smoke and mirrors of Tinseltown. Still, that does not stop most Americans, in general, from viewing themselves as the “Cowboys” of the World, the “Top Dog.” We are here to keep order in an otherwise lawless landscape, even if that means doing so with smoking guns-a’-blazing.

Shepard’s play True West is a meditation on this conundrum. Two brothers, perhaps symbolizing two halves of the same person, square off over the writing of a movie script. The symbolism is unmistakable. They are two animals grappling for supremacy. It is a fight to the death over whole will be the Alpha dog. It is the symbolic dance of masculine aggression. In the course of the play, the brothers switch places.  Austin goes from meek, contained family man to an unrestrained, ferocious monster. Lee, likewise, makes the switch from hunter to hunted.

Their struggle mirrors the desire of Americans to maintain their supremacy over the rest of the world. It is, perhaps, a futile endeavor that will ultimately end in a reversal of roles. It is the perpetual conflict of man versus man, brother versus brother, that will continue in a never-ending cycle until the end of time.

Working on this play has been a treat. After directing Hamlet last year, I was ready to take on a smaller, more intimate play. This is not to say that directing this play has been any less demanding. Just as Hamlet is a role that any actor worth their chops would (almost) kill to play, the characters of Austin and Lee, the two brothers of True West, have provided our young actors some equally juicy roles to sink their teeth into.