When I saw this play billed, I wondered why The Dukes was putting on a piece by a relatively unknown American dramatist, when there was plenty of more ‘mainstream’ work to go at, such as Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Still, even at fifty you’re never too old to learn, I thought, so off we went with not much enthusiasm.

Set in “a Southern Californian suburb” in the early 1980s (not the 1950s as suggested by one review I have seen) the play kicks off with evidence of some tension between two brothers who do not know each other very well. Indeed they have hardly seen much of each other for some years. 'Oh dear, domestic Woody Allen-style neurotic angst', I thought as the lights went down and the action got under way.

Sure, the two brothers both have problems. Austin is a professional screenwriter with family, respectability and a career, and the other, Lee, is a drifter with no qualifications or ties and whose only skill seems at first sight to be his Robin Hood-like ability to take from the rich and give to the poor. Austin is house-sitting for their vacationing mother and working on a script, whilst Lee just happens to drift by.

My reservations about the piece did not last for long. The action quickly unfolds to reveal chasmic differences of Weltanschauung and lifestyle between the two siblings, as well as a debate about the nature and morality of art and work. This is acutely seen in their different attitudes to Austin’s work in the movies; the one fawns to the manipulative market-driven demands of the agents who manipulate the Hollywood screen industry, whilst the other demands a traditional, good ol’ homespun cowboy adventure just like grandpaw used to tell.

As the differences quickly spiral into a determined and finely-wrought battle of wills, the unusual strengths of the play become evident. Shepard is a very acute observer of human nature, and has written a well-wrought text that depicts the gradual development, decadence and final disintegration of the relationship between the two men.

All this is set against an obscure family background with an ill and absent father; we are never quite sure what the problem is, or what has happened to him. A key catalyst in the action is the appearance of Saul Kimmer, one of Austin’s agents, to negotiate a new screenplay. And without giving away too much of the plot (as other reviewers hereabouts are wont to do), Kimmer is sweet-talked by Lee (again, we are not sure how or why, but I have my own ideas about that!), and finally the boys’ mom returns home early from Alaska.

The overall result is a finely-observed, well-crafted and fascinating study about how human beings relate to each other. It can also be read as a metaphor about the true nature of the “Great American Dream” – just what does that mean? The plot and dialogue are justification for such praise in itself, but there are further excellent dimensions to this production that are worth noting.

The first striking aspect is the setting and the staging. Every single one of the properties and pieces of furniture in the mom’s bungalow living-room set are authentic downtown late 1970s America, which is a credit to The Dukes’ set design contractors. The play is performed in The Dukes’ studio and in the round and, no matter where you sit on any of the four sides, you feel a closeness to the action, and an intimacy with the characters that is so often absent from the proscenium-style stagings most of us are used to.

Director Ian Hastings has also triumphed with the casting and direction; the three men were all native North Americans, with well-placed accents and use of language which underlined their disparate backgrounds and highlighted the differences between their characters.

The action moved imaginatively and seamlessly round the well-designed set. The direction brought out the gradual overall rise in the tension as the drama unfolds, with some fine-tuned nuances in the pace as the action suddenly builds up and then slackens off.

This critic is pleased to eat his words and retract his first judgments. Shepard’s work, which extends from the 1960s to the present, is virtually unknown in this country. This is to be regretted, since it easily equals the achievements of the aforementioned Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. True West has a higher claim to the mainstream contemporary repertoire than some of the stuff that is doing the rounds of British theatre these days.

One or two people we know have expressed reservations about Hastings’ ability as a director. This seemingly fashionable misconception is simply not the case: his achievements in this production are of a very high order indeed.

This show is not to be missed. It is yet another of the “hidden gems” that my partner and I have been slowly – and very happily - discovering in Lancaster during the fifteen months we have been here.

Copyright © 19 March 2004 Michael Nunn

A staged reading of another Shepard play, The Unseen Hand, takes place at 10pm (after True West) on March 31 and April 1. Admission, by tickets in advance, is free.
Click here for more information.