Contrasting lifestyles: 'True West' excavates the volatile relationship of two brothers

Austin, the son of a desert rat alcoholic, is working on a screenplay to pitch to a producer.

Just when the deal looks good, his petty thief brother Lee stumbles back into his life.

Opening at Fusion on Thursday, Sept. 12, Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “True West” excavates their volatile relationship as they navigate their contrasting lifestyles while staying in their mother’s California home.

The college-educated Austin has achieved the American Dream. He’s a successful screenwriter about to sell his next creation to a producer. The antisocial Lee suddenly appears just as the deal looks sealed. The two estranged siblings have not seen each other in five years.

“They start out as these opposite types,” said director Jacqueline Reid, Fusion co-founder. “Then they change modalities. Each brother becomes like the other. They’re writing a screenplay together.”

Soon Lee pitches his own film epiphany to the producer, a Western of trashy proportions. Will Hollywood bite?

“A lot of his characters in many of his plays have issues of substance abuse,” Reid said. “The assumption is that it’s autobiographical.”

Much of Shepard’s work explores generations to answer questions of identity. What is real? What is an illusion? Reid said. Themes of rescuing our parents and rescuing our pasts thread throughout his work.

“Of course, what we see is maybe not,” Reid continued. “It’s each person’s responsibility to do it for themselves.

“We tend to repeat (behavior) based on trauma,” she added. “It becomes especially relevant to modern times, which is a testament to the playwright’s genius.”

Premiered on Broadway in 2000, the play starred John C. Reilly and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman alternating the lead roles.

“His characters viscerally jump into battle and come to decisions that change their lives,” Reid said. “He’s incredibly theatrical, so it’s always a visual feast.”