True West

[edit] Guide Note

Sam Shepard's play True West focuses on two fighting brothers.

Austin, a middle class screenwriter, is watching his mother's house. His brother Lee visits with the intent of stealing from their mother's neighbors. Although Austin protests he gives in and only asks Lee to be gone when a producer, Saul Kimmer, visits. Despite the request Lee walks in while Austin and Kimmer are talking and charms the producer into giving him a chance with an outline for a screenplay about an improbable Western. Austin agrees to type out the screenplay to get his car keys back from Lee which leads to an argument about their alcoholic and violent father who has gone to the desert.

Kimmer tells likes Lee's screenplay more than Austin's. A humiliated Austin gets drunk as Lee tries to type his screenplay. As the night goes on their almost start to merge into one man. By the next morning Austin has begun stealing and Lee has smashed his typewriter. Lee agrees to take Austin to the desert if Austin helps him with his screenplay. Their mother comes home earlier and is horrified at the condition of the house and her dead houseplants. Austin seems to strangle Lee as his mother leaves, but the play ends with Lee still alive and blocking Austin's exit as they stare at each other in a classic Western showdown.

[edit] Fast Facts

1. First performed at the Magic Theatre in San Fransisco
2. Premiered on July 10, 1980
3. A two act play
4. New York premiere at The Public Theater
5. The 2000 revival nominated for Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Director, and Best Actor
6. Showtime television production starred Bruce Willis
7. Written in 1979
8. First published in 1981
9. Published by Bantam Books
10. Major symbol is houseplants
11. Major themes are art versus business and the old west versus new west
12. The play criticizes the reality of the traditional "Old West" myth
13. Despite violence classified as a comic play
14. More realistic and conventional than some of Shepard's earlier plays

[edit] Quotations

1. "Hey, ya' know, if that uh' story of yours doesn't go over with the guy, tell him I got a couple a' projects he might be interested in. Real commercial. Full a suspense. True-to-life stuff." — Lee
2. "Well, you'll probably wind up on the same desert sooner or later." — Mom