REVIEW: True West, Crucible Theatre - VIDEO
THROUGHOUT the run of Sam Shepard's tale of a pair of squabbling brothers, the actors swap roles on alternate nights.
On press night John Light so convincingly embodied the wilder embittered Lee and Nigel Harman the more wimpish but successful Austin it is hard to imagine it the other way round.
With their mother away in Alaska, screenwriter Austin is house-sitting for her when bad penny Lee shows up after years living rough in the Mojave desert.
Immediately old rivalries are ignited with their differences in character intensified. But when a visiting Hollywood producer shows an interest in Lee's story, the excluded Austin is goaded into beating his petty thief sibling at his own game. Drunkenly the brothers proceed to trash the house.
There is thus a sense that they are two sides of one personality, giving a point to the role-swapping. (It's a neat marketing ruse too since many were talking afterwards of returning to see how it would work).
Although a metaphor for the decline of the old West and therefore a very American subject, the play is just as much about families and ambition which we can all relate to.
Shephard's play could easily be all macho shouting but this is admirably restrained, so the sudden eruptions of rage and violence from the smouldering prowling Light give it a real edge.
Its also very funny and Paul Miller's smooth production is a triumph of choreographed toast-making if nothing else. Don't ask - go see.
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