“People aren’t interested in love stories… they want real adventures… true to life… all true.”

This, my friends is True West.  As I had never heard of Sam Shepard’s play True West before, my main reason for the excitement brewing was the knowledge that Phil ‘I get rudely awakened by the dustman…Parklife’ Daniel’s was starring.  Following the popularity and success of his character in ‘Time Gentlemen Please’ I was sure that he would not disappoint.

True West is the story of two wholly opposed brothers, Lee (Phil Daniels) and Austin (Andrew Tiernan). Austin is a timid, young screenwriter on the brink of selling a script to a big Hollywood producer. Well educated and courteous, he is intimidated and often bullied by his older brother, Lee, a loud and violent heavy drinker.  Lee has lived out in the open deserts of the West, surviving on street smarts and petty theft. This contrasting setup naturally leads to conflict, which erupts when Lee sells a movie idea to Austin’s producer, Saul Kimmer (played by Jim Dunk), causing Austin’s original project to get dumped. Consequently, the characters undergo a role reversal with Austin becoming the loud obnoxious drunk, as they both begin to realize that they are not as different as they had once thought.

Lee’s violent and 1 dimensional outbursts during the first act occasionally erred on the repetitive side, making his character a nuisance rather than a threat:  But in my opinion, during the second half, the script gave the actors much more scope to add depth to their characterizations.  Tension is created and maintained well during the final act, as the two brothers vie for control and power in their relationship.  The dynamic Tiernan and Daniels create onstage is believable and satisfying as both men seemed to understand the working of their characters, and portray the mixed feelings of admiration and jealousy, brotherly love and sibling rivalry into the relationship.

Another successful element of this production was the beautifully crafted set, depicting the house belonging to Austin and Lee’s mother (Jane Lowe).  She is obviously fairly affluent, as we see both the insides of the spacious kitchen area which eventually becomes annihilated by their squabbling, and the garden adorned with her precious flowers and idyllic patio pottery, which again, suffers the wrath of both Lee and Austin’s drunken outbursts.  The scene where Austin has taken Lee’s bet that he couldn’t steal a toaster, and has in fact returned with hundreds of them, and then proceeds to make toast… lots and lots and lots of toast; contrasting with Lee’s desperate attempts to remember how to use a phone, and his frantic search for a pencil was sheer comedy genius.  Gasps of horror filled the auditorium as Lee callously knocked all of Austin’s carefully prepared toast pile to the floor!  Followed by fits of laughter when their mother arrived later the next day to find her house in ruins, Lee topless, drunk, and covered in beer; Austin frantically at work typing a screenplay he didn’t want to do in the first place, and worst of all, her plants all dried up and dead.  During their final fight, where an uneasy tension is created as Austin wraps a phone cord around Lee’s neck and slowly chokes him, is paradoxically contrasted by their mother’s insistence that they ‘play outside’ and be ‘nice to each other’. 

Each of the actors played their part (however small) superbly, setting the tone for each scene and creating the right balance between high energy mayhem, and real feelings of depression and anxiety brought about by jealousy, drink and rage.  It did seem to take a while to get going, and perhaps the production still needs to quicken the pace of the first act slightly; but small niggles aside, this was a thoroughly entertaining and well produced show, with extra special brownie points awarded for that classic, fateful, immortal toasty moment!

A highly enjoyable evening out from a fantastic production. Strong script, stunning set and lighting, fantastic cast, and brilliant direction/staging….it’s everything you could ever wish for…..except maybe toast at the end!

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