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True WestClick on the images to view larger versions. Photographs by George Coupe
Two contrasting visions of America, imagined through the different characters of two brothers
About the playSouthern California. Austin, a Los Angeles screenwriter, is house-sitting for his mother while he puts the finishing touches to his current scriptwriting project. His hopes for peace and quiet disappear with the arrival of Lee, a small-time crook and drifter or as he would have it: “desert survival expert”. When a Hollywood producer arrives to discuss Austin’s project, Lee hijacks the meeting with a pitch for a Western based on his own, exaggerated life. The producer is browbeaten into offering Lee a big-bucks advance and Austin agrees to put his brother’s vision into words. But their rivalry is too much for them and the tension rises into a dramatic finale. A devastatingly realistic power struggle from inside the mind of “the bucking bronco of American theater”.
Press reviewsVIRTUAL LANCASTER: "NOT TO BE MISSED"Read Virtual Lancaster critic Michael Nunn's review at vitual lancaster.net/reviews/ The Dukes Theatre make another home run with director Ian Hastings' assured production of American writer Sam Shepard's True West. It oozes authenticity, thanks to two commanding central performances, and a sound and set design that even suggests the Southern Californian heat of its location. No mean feat in itself on a cold night in Lancaster. Sibling rivalry is stoked up as two brothers work out their own take on Cain and Abel. The educated Austin has had a writing project cooking for months, while his drifter brother Lee steals for a living. Both have a vision of the American Dream and Shepard creates a dramatic battleground between their imagination and reality, and whether America's past or present is the more valid. It's not giving too much away to say that it reaches a nerve-shredding climax and an iconic image of how the West was won. Just 180 people a night can share this adrenalin-soaked drama. Make sure you are one of them before April 3. DAVID UPTON, LANCASHIRE EVENING POST
"True West" comes to the North West in the Dukes’ latest powerful and energetic production of a 1980’s story of raging sibling rivalry. From the very beginning the tension begins to rise only to boil over in a violent feud in the second half that has the audience on the edge of their seats. With just a cast of four, three of whom are Americans, Sam Shepard’s surreal, dark yet compelling piece of contemporary theatre exposes the myth of the American dream while laying waste the cultural landscapes that he has inhabited as an actor, playwright, film writer and director. Richard Brake, whose latest film credits include "Cold Mountain", commands centre stage from the word go with an impressive portrayal of an American drifter that will not be contained by the performing area and is ideally suited to the intimacy of the Dukes Studio. In this he is perfectly complimented by the extremely talented Timothy Deenihan as Austin, the Los Angeles screenwriter, whose sense of timing is impeccable giving a sense of credibility to both the drama and the comedy of the power struggle being played out between the two brothers. John G. Moraitis plays the Hollywood producer, Saul Kimmer, who arrives to discuss Austin’s latest project yet ends up being talked instead into offering mega-bucks for a tacky Texan adventure across the desert by the feckless Lee who reflects Shepard’s propensity for basing his scripts on his own bizarre experiences. Together with the role of Mom played in a down-beat kind of way by Angela Moran these two characters serve to provide both spice and backdrop to the action as the rivalry between Lee and Austin reaches its crescendo without necessarily reaching any conclusion. Again one of the hall-marks of Shepard’s plays. As the final in-house production of the spring season the Dukes under the direction of Ian Hastings has once more proved that lesser-known works in today’s commercial world of theatre have something to offer an audience that is prepared to deviate from the well-worn path. Anyone wishing to explore the rich vein of alternative contemporary pieces will find the effort well rewarded in "True West" and may even enjoy riding this "bucking bronco of American theatre". But hold on tight because you won’t want to miss the summer production in Williamson Park of "The Canterbury Tales"!
POWERFUL ASSAULT ON NATION'S DREAMS Strip away at the Dukes' immaculate new production of Sam Shepard's "True West" and the naked underbelly of the American Dream is exposed in all its contradictory glory. On a superficial level this is a richly entertaining slice of sibling rivalry, two brothers vying for the attentions of a smooth-operating movie producer as they both pitch ideas for films. But in their characters and attitudes the brothers reveal a deeper divide that drives to the heart of Stateside obsessions. First there is Lee, the iconic drifter, living out a lifestyle of desert dog-fighting, trailer parks and petty crime, his world sound-tracked by the bottleneck blues of Ry Cooder and the spirit of a thousand road movies. In contrast his Ivy League-educated brother Austin is the preppy alter ego, clean cut and responsible, the embodiment of the dream realised and all its white picket-fenced suburban trappings. It's James Dean versus Benjamin Braddock in the great battle of all-American heroes and in their respective film scripts - Austin's intelligent love story painstakingly compiled, Lee's rough-hewn take on a modern Western - that divide is thrown into even sharper focus. If the themes are there already in the script, then the atmosphere and signature of this memorable production is in Ian Hastings's subtle direction and a universally excellent cast. Mention must also go to a fine set in the intimate Dukes studio, taking up the Americana cue with a retro 50's look in the southern Californian home. Richard Brake steals the show as Lee, his angular frame and wild hair a perfect representation of the character, while Austin and producer Saul Kimmer are both expertly drawn by Timothy Deenihan and John G Moraitis. The developing tensions are played out in some intense scenes between Brake and Deenihan, every sideways glance and movement perfectly designed to contribute. This is powerful work and arguably the Dukes' best in recent years, epic in the scale of the content and played with real energy and assured purpose. PROBABLY THE BEST THING I HAVE SEEN AT THE DUKES
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