Sam Shepard’s True West is a play about vicious
sibling rivalry but, as its title suggests, it also deals with the American
obsession with westerns and consequently the American Dream, whatever that is.
Two brothers from a dysfunctional family meet in their mother’s house in
southern California after many years of separation. Their mother is in Alaska
and their father is a down and out bum.
At first glance, the brothers appear to be completely different. The bespectacled
Austin (Kit Harington) is an Ivy League university educated writer working on a
movie script. He is a scholarly and focused gentleman.
From left:
Kit Harington, Donald Sage Mackay and Johnny Flynn. Photo: Marc Brenner
His brother Lee (Johnny Flynn) is a rough-hewn, vulgar, violent petty
thief. He is so aggressive and menacing that we expect him or fear that he will
strike Austin at any moment. In short, we have a drunken low-life and a
civilized human being on the edge of the desert in California.
Saul (Donald Sage Mackay) comes to discuss Austin’s idea for a
screenplay. The garrulous, uncouth and almost illiterate drunkard Lee intrudes
into the conversation with a cockamamie idea
about a western and Saul falls for it. Shepard ridicules the American idea of
the western with its ludicrous plots.
Austin loses his composure and becomes jealous and slowly violent at the
thought that his Neanderthal brother has in effect replaced him. We see a
complete transformation of the two siblings as one takes the place of the other
and vice versa.
Their mother (Madeleine Potter) appears. She does not seem to have any
effect on the violence that she sees in her children as they fight viciously.
Harington and Flynn do superb work as the two brothers. They must engage
is some vigorous physical fighting and emotional highs as they move from one
character extreme into the opposite.
Mackay and Potter as the producer (or is he just an agent?) and the mother are small roles that act as catalysts
for the transformation and violence we see in the brothers as they change in
front of our eyes.
Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn In 'True West.' Photo: Marc Brenner
The set by Jon Bausor consists of a
kitchen, work area and sitting room in the first half which opens to show us
the desert in the final scenes.
Director Matthew Dunster brings out the strengths of the play,
especially the violent outbursts and destructive fight sequences. Flynn’s
outbursts are scary. The end is ambiguous, but you may have a different
opinion. No plot spoiler.
True West is not
Shepard’s best play, but it is a highly respectable part of his work and the
production is very much worth seeing.
____
True West by Sam Shepard continues until February 23, 2019 at the Vaudeville
Theatre, 404 Strand, London, England. https://www.nimaxtheatres.com/shows/true-west/
No comments:
Post a Comment