Went to the theatre last night. Sam Shepard’s True West, at the Sheffield Lyceum. Very different tone from the work he’s best known for – Paris, Texas – but the production stands comparison with Wim Wenders’ movie. Let’s have a closer look.
True West, written just before Paris, Texas, presents us with two brothers. Austin – a closeted, prosperous screenwriter trying to finish a movie, and his harpy-like tormentor, the lowlife Lee. Holed up in their Mother’s condo on a house sit, Austin is fighting a losing battle to manage his sibling’s marginal, criminal tendencies while chained to the typewriter. The game changer comes when the screenwriter’s producer, Saul Kimmer, is wowed by the transient Lee’s pitch for a western. Before too long Lee is metamorphasising into the tortured writer while Austin is breaking and entering. But these are only the boys most recent roles, and as the stakes are raised more primeval masks are brought into play…