By Erin Philips
SAN DIEGO – Violence? Check. Despair? Check. A typewriter and toasters? Check and check.
The trope of brothers feuding goes as far back as Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis. In Cygnet Theatre’s new production of playwright Sam Shepard’s True West, the story gains a new twist as the brothers, one a well-dressed screenwriter and the other an alcoholic drifter and thief, go head-to-head in a Western-style showdown and slow descent into madness.
Austin is a screenwriter who has come to L.A. to house sit for his mother and seal the deal on a film script he has been working on for months. When Lee, his dirty, menacing brother, arrives from the desert and cons his way into getting his own project produced instead of Austin’s, fighting, drinking, and storytelling ensue. As the two-act play unfolds, art and nature are examined, family secrets are revealed, and the threat of violence hangs heavy in the air.
The two lead actors, Manny Fernandes and Francis Gercke, give stellar performances as Lee and Austin. Both roles are physically demanding and emotionally brutal. The set, lighting and sound design are spare and evocative, adding to the surreal feel of the world the brothers inhabit. A mid-20th century kitchen with hanging house plants that wilt and die over the course of the show, a large projection screen with rotating images of the Hollywood sign, and a soundtrack featuring crickets, barking dogs, howling coyotes, and Western music are perfectly suited to the material.
As tempers flair and tension mounts, the set becomes increasingly cluttered, the brothers’ physical space mirroring their mental state of decline. By the end of the play, the brothers have switched roles and come full circle, destined to repeat the cycle of frustration, desperation, violence and insanity all over again.
Directed by Sean Murray, True West is being performed in Old Town in conjunction with Fool for Love as part of Cygnet Theatre’s “Shep Rep” through November 2.
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Philips is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts and cuisine. She may be contacted via erin.philips@sdjewishworld.com