Review - True West

Mount Players Presents:

True West

By Sam Shepard

Directed by Travis Handcock

Set Design - Travis Handcock

Set Artist – Robert Wallace

Lighting Design – Roger Farley

Costumes - Debra Moore

Cast:

Lee – David Cubley

Austin – Lee Cook

Saul – David Runnalls

Mom – Sandy Green

Mountview Theatre Macedon

Until 11 June 2017

True West is a strong and interesting play by Sam Shepard.  It seems to be produced every now and again but not as often as Cowboy Mouth and not surprisingly as it is challenging for both actors and audience.

It is a courageous choice for Mount Players and its success it a testament to the especially strong ethic of team playing that this company thrives on.

Full of twists and turns True West surprises and shocks.  It touches on some mysterious, subterranean psychological motivations as it looks at the profoundly powerful sibling relationship/rivalry between two vastly different brothers, Lee (David Cubley) and Austin (Lee Cook).

It is dark, a very dark the story of a kind of a nightmare of interaction that can happen in the family home.  However at the same time it is almost hysterically funny especially in the second act.

This production is marvelously staged on a sort of framework/skeleton of a house, designed by Travis Handcock and heightened by one of Robert Wallace’s stunning backdrops indicative of the harsh desert environment.  Lighting (Design – Roger Farley and Operator – Roslyn Farrugia) is often used to considerable effect in creating atmosphere. 

Stage directions are honoured and the success of the second act’s deep dark humour is very dependent on this.

All actors work with integrity and commitment to their parts and the production as a whole.  And both leads do a stunning job in their own way.  However as a masterpiece of American Theatre the text is exceptionally demanding and requires a complex sense of communication between the two brothers. The drawback in this production, for me, is the casting.  Although both lead actors do a fantastic job of getting their characters over to the audience it is very, very difficult to see them as biological brothers.

It may just be my sensibility but these two need to be seen to affect each other or perhaps more importantly - actually listen to each other. Through their familial intimacy Shepard’s characters have the power to destroy each other.  The stakes are very high.  They are, fortunately, certainly not over acting but I think the piece requires a slightly more naturalistic approach.  Less acting and just a bit more naturalism could do the trick.

I would like David Cubley as Lee to take a couple of steps back, project less, and allow the audience to witness more of his thought processes.  In this way the dark insidious elements of the work could be seen to creep in and bring with them a more suspense filled atmosphere.

As audience I would like to register more shock and distress provoked by the uncanny, subtle changes throughout.

Director Travis Handcock has been very ambitious in this choice of work and it seems to be paying off.  Round the traps the word is out that this production is controversial and polarizing – some love it some hate it.  However it is getting the houses and is well worth catching if you can. 

True West is an engrossing story that offers heaps to think about.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)