Writer: Sam Shepard
Director:Janine Wunsche
Hollywood versus the Wild West, Past versus Present, Brother versus Brother… Sam Shepard’s True West is all about opposites, and how they come together. First performed in 1980, this family drama finds new life as part of Camden Fringe.
This production of True West stars James Knapp and Peter Lewis as estranged brothers Austin and Lee. They meet for the first time in years in the home of their mother while she’s away in Alaska, and we soon realise that there is some sort of sibling rivalry going on between the two of them. We learn about their lives and how different they turned out: Austin is a married father working as a screenwriter, who is on the verge of selling his screenplay to a big-shot Hollywood producer, and Lee is an unemployed drifter who keeps going back to his old ways.
These two characters seem to be, on paper, perfect for a good old family drama. And they are. One is responsible, the other is carefree; one has a good job, the other would rather steal from the neighbours… Sure enough, they squabble, they bicker, they bring up the past, they make up, and then bicker some more… and then the tables turn.
Sam Shepard’s third instalment in what many consider to be the so-called Family Trilogy, comprising plays written in the late 70s and early 80s, takes on the family drama dynamic and gives it a whole new spin. Its unusual and refreshing plot, combining elements one doesn’t often see in the same genre – the desert AND screenplays? – makes for an interesting take on the sibling rivalry trope. A Western-themed, California-set drama that gets more and more tense as it goes on. One can’t help but feel that at any moment, something bad is going to happen… and when it does, the climax is effective, and it only seems fitting for such a complex piece led by two strikingly different characters. The Old West and the West Coast meet and come to blows. Think Bad Day at Black Rock meets Barton Fink.
This, of course, would not be possible without the fantastic chemistry between the two leads. Knapp and Lewis are brilliant in their roles as the two siblings who both love and can’t stand each other. They navigate the space confidently and at ease, and it helps that, while skillful and precise, Janine Wunsche’s direction is not particularly inventive or intrusive; instead, it lets Knapp and Lewis live and breathe their characters. Equally, the set and sound design take us to this place in the middle of nowhere, in between two worlds that neither of the characters particularly wants to inhabit. But we are lucky to be there, witnessing it.
Runs until 11 August 2023
Camden Fringe runs until 27 August 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Hollywood versus the Wild West
