True West

Sam Shepard’s 1980 dark comedy, True West, is an explosive exploration of family dysfunction and sibling rivalry. Austin, an Ivy League-educated, hopeful screenwriter, has returned to his childhood home outside L.A., intent on selling his latest script to a Hollywood producer. But Austin’s world is turned upside down when his older brother Lee, a crude petty thief, shows up unexpectedly and tries to sell his story – a “true” American western – to the intrigued producer. As the two estranged men wrangle over their screenplays, bicker, get drunk, and trash the house, they soon come to realize that deep down they may not be so different after all. Intensely psychological and hideously funny, True West presents the duality of human personality and our primal capacity for violence.

There are no performances on Thursday, November 23; Wednesday, December 27; Thursday, December 28; or Friday, December 29.