Sam Shephard's plays inhabit an imagined territory in which the old American West, with its lawless freedoms, collides with the modern rat-race. True West is an excellent example; one can almost touch the tensions.
Austin, an ivy league product, has come south to stay in his mother's vacant Arizona house long enough to write and sell a film script. His brother Lee, a desert drifter and small-time criminal, unexpectedly turns up with a view to some kind of exploitation. When promoter Saul arrives to do business, matters take a strange turn.
As the brothers vie for psychological supremacy, with physical violence never far away, their thicker-than-water blood creates a role reversal. Lee is tempted by big money; Austin wants to forget his family up north to try life in the desert. The premature return of their mother acts as a catalyst, leading to a punchy, multi-layered ending.
The acting, here fostered and magnified by the intimacy of the small theatre, is quite riveting. Malachy McKenna (Austin) and Stewart Roche (Lee) play their roles from the inside out, wholly convincing. Sean Whelan (Saul) and Anne McGeown (Mom) support them with some excellence. Rossa O'Sioradain directs, for Lughnasa Productions, with the right feel for it all.
until 17th April; booking at 01-6795720
