Ann Brown special to the Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Theater Company's production of Sam Shepard's True West is a powerful and poignant portrait of family dysfunction and sibling rivalry, punctuated with brilliant humor.
True West, which opened Friday, May 3, will close the ATC season on May 18.
Prolific playwright Shepard (1943-2017) is known for his realistic and daring works. True West was nominated in 1983 for a Pulitzer Prize. There's a tense, tense narrative sustained by Shepard after he and his father struggled with alcoholism.
The sets combine gold cabinets, avocado green appliances, large patterned wallpaper and the floral fringed vinyl tablecloth to transport the audience into a kitchen and dining room of the late 1960s and early 1960s. 70s where Austin (Rhett Guter) takes care of his precious mother. plants in her Los Angeles area home while vacationing in Alaska.
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Austin, an Ivy League graduate whose wife and children are 500 miles away, types on his portable typewriter and works on a screenplay that he hopes will be a major step in his career . Brother Lee (Zack Fine), who hasn't spoken to Austin in five years, has just arrived at their mother's house because he plans to prowl the neighborhood and steal a few items from nearby houses. Returning from months in the desert, Lee, wearing a long, worn jacket over a sleeveless T-shirt, gives off a wanderer vibe. You can almost smell the sweat.
Producer Saul Kimmer (Geoffrey Wade) comes to the house to meet with Austin to discuss the promising romantic period piece Austin is working on. Lee inserts himself into the discussion and invites himself to play golf with Saul. Lee pitches Saul a movie idea after an impressive shot on the green, and Saul shifts gears to support Lee's idea with Austin writing the script. Austin is shot; he cannot write both projects.
Years of estrangement, competition, anger, envy and rivalry, and lots of drinking, turn into a dynamic power struggle and an exploration of how two brothers can be so different, yet so similar. Shepard's wit and dark humor are peppered throughout the play.
Guter and Fine are strong and believable as Austin and Lee. Throughout their verbal brutality, Fine is threatening and Guter maintains her composure until their positions change. The physicality of the actors: they fall, slip, slide and break things is exceptional. Director Jenn Thompson has the duo make effective use of the entire scene and carefully selected props.
Amelia White as the mother makes a short, albeit important, appearance. White projects a cold distance and indifference that adds depth to the conflicts between the brothers. Wade is solid like Kimmer. His costume and appearance scream scammer, but he didn't seem entirely comfortable in his character's skin.
The rich details of set designer Alexander Dodge and designer Alejo Vietti's costumes create a sense of time and place. No detail is overlooked. Check out the vintage sneakers Guter wears.
Shepard wrote more than 50 plays and won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Play in 1978 for Buried Child. As an actor, Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in 1983's The Right Stuff and has had memorable roles in more than 25 films.
Arizona Theater Company's production of True West continues through May 18 at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.
For tickets and programming, visit atc.org/show/true-west.
The production lasts approximately two hours with one intermission.
Michelangelo's “David” has been a defining figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504 and a defining achievement of the Renaissance.
But in today's era of fast money, conservatives fear the marble statue's religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets being sold around Florence focused on David's genitals. #michelangelo #art #italy #renaissance
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Ann Brown is a former journalist and editor-in-chief of the Star.
