| "True, polished and Powerful..."
"...a knock down drag out dark comedy
with an anthropological lesson you won’t forget..."
“True West” is so tightly-wound and professionally acted it makes some of the Spreckels’ previous shows staged in the small theater seem tame by comparison.
"Such commitment to a project might seem madness to some, but as Burke and McCloud see it, that commitment is exactly the kind of thing that Shepard's work tends to inspire..."
'True' polished and powerful
By DAN TAYLOR
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Bottom line: Actors Eric Burke and Edward McCloud turned producers, with a help from director and co- producer David Lear, for a chance to co-star in Sam Shepard's classic modern drama about the clash between two brothers. So it's no surprise this production embraces a no-holds-barred acting style.
Actors Eric Burke and Edward McCloud formed Double E Productions for one reason. They wanted to co-star in Sam Shepard's raw drama of brotherly rivalry, "True West."
With the aid of David Lear, co-founder of Santa Rosa's experimental Loading Zone theater, they're getting their wish in a new studio production at Rohnert Park's Spreckels Performing Arts Center.
Directed by Lear, with Loading Zone's Al Liner in a key supporting role, Burke and McCloud roared through an opening performance that was part entrepreneurial venture, part actors' learning lab and all heart.
Making good on their ambitions, both co-stars nailed their roles with an accuracy that's almost scary.
Burke, as ne'er-do-well drifter and grifter Lee, swings from charm to menace and back again with the smooth ease of a classic sociopath.
McCloud, as Austin, initially establishes the younger brother as superficially more successful and socially acceptable, then gradually reveals the character's essential weakness.
Comfortably and naturally paced under Lear's direction, the two-act, two-hour play eventually allows the audience to realize that these two brothers, apparent opposites at first, may not be so different after all.
Liner, as a Hollywood producer interested in a screenplay that Austin's writing, also gives a spontaneous and completely believable performance. Here's a affable but shrewd character who has no problem changing his mind in an instant, and offers no apology.
Carol MacRae fills out the small cast as the two brothers' mother, whose main purpose in the play is to show up late in the second act and express dismay at what her sons have done to her home in her absence.
Lear gives the actors plenty of room to explore and inhabit their characters, which lends the play emotional power and authenticity, but this approach also risks occasional excesses.
Surely, Shepard's warring siblings are written to clash constantly but in this production's second act, the tantrums, fights and general thrashing about border very briefly on self-indulgence. Slight restraint might actually increase the dramactic intensity.
Lear doubles as set designer, and his design for the family's home, with a large and detailed kitchen, adds to this production's convincing realism. Credit set builder Chris Murphy with helping create the illusion that real people live in this modest little home.
Lighting design by Tom Watts helps set both the mood and the time of day with subtle shadings. Even the sound design by Mcloud and David Maroul -- with moody music, the chirp of crickets and coyote howls -- adds to the productions atmosphere and credibility.
This show is the work of a small band of experienced theater people who came together simply because they wanted to do this particular play.
The result of their labor is as polished as most local productions and more instensely moving than many of them.
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.
Men Behaving Badly
True West' and 'Leading Ladies' showcase brotherhood and friendship
By David Templeton
Men who do bad things are a big deal these days. From movies like "There Will Be Blood" and "Semi-Pro" to recent Broadway hits "Cry Baby" and "The Seafarer," examinations of naughty, scheming guys are all the rage. It's even true in the North Bay, where two shows about guys who commit questionable acts are on the boards, both featuring strong performances by pairs of local actors.
"I've wanted to do this play for years, and I've wanted to do it with Ed since the first time I saw him act," says actor Eric Burke. Burke is discussing both Sam Shepard's classic topsy-turvy masterpiece True West and actor Edward McCloud, with whom Burke is now co-producing and performing in a strong, satisfying new production at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center.
Directed by David Lear, who was handpicked by Burke and McCloud to guide them through Shepard's most intimate play, this production is notable because, after years of collaborations with various North Bay theater companies, the threesome are doing it on their own, working entirely outside the protections and confines of any established theater company.
"When a project moves you and motivates you and inspires you as strongly as this project has inspired Ed and me," Burke says, "you can't wait for the opportunity to be handed to you on a plate. You have to go make it happen for yourself. That's what we've done with True West."
True West, which premiered in San Francisco 28 years ago this July, tells the manic-depressive, scary-funny story of two brothers whose lifelong sibling rivalry gives way to a rip-roaring dysfunctional showdown when the pair decide to collaborate on a Western screenplay. As the brothers' actions begin to mirror the ebbs and flows of a typical western movie, the entire play becomes an examination of American masculinity and the downside of the great myth of the West. Toasters, fistfights and a truly nasty mother add to the action.
"It's been a lot of work, making this happen," adds McCloud, "not only acting this incredibly demanding material, but also producing it, financing it, thinking about how to promote it—all the stuff actors usually don't have to think about because someone else [is running the show]. But I have to say, this has been an incredibly satisfying artistic experience, from every angle. True West, I mean—it's Sam Shepard! How great that we get to do this work, and do it on our own terms."
Such commitment to a project might seem madness to some, but as Burke and McCloud see it, that commitment is exactly the kind of thing that Shepard's work tends to inspire.
"It's been a long time since Shepard was performed in this area," Burke says. "It just such good material. It's dark, but it's funny. Most of the other productions I've seen have ignored the fact that this is a comedy. [Director David Lear] gets that. So this will be dark, but there are gonna be big funny moments too. That's what Shepard is so good at—shocking you to your core at the same time he's making you laugh."
Excerpted from The Bohemian, June 11, 2008
June 13, 2008
Gritty Sam Shepard play grips audience on Spreckels stage
Drama review
By Jud Snyder
Well, a lot of families have difficulties. Sibling envy and competition have been constantly explored in solemn, scholarly, heavily-footnoted books found on social worker’s offices, but tell me, how many of them explore the intense satisfaction of beating a typewriter to death with a five iron?
This is fertile territory for Sam Shepard. His acid-tinged dissection of the rivalry between two brothers is what “True West” is all about. It’s a banal title, perhaps purposefully. No cowboys and Indians here.
The tension in “True West” burbles right from the start. There’s Austin, the neatly-dressed screenwriter straining over his portable typewriter to complete a script. Then there’s his older brother, Lee, torn T-shirt, constantly swigging beer from the bottle, no socks, and feet sprawled on table. Right away the edges of sibling confrontation are spread out on the worn kitchen floor like an invisible, frazzled carpet.
You’ve got to pay attention to the words. It’s Shepard’s finely-honed dialogue that pulls the familiar conflict along to its violence-strewn, kitchen-demolishing finish. There’s no time to gaze at the detailed, honest set design by David Lear, the play’s director. The set takes a beating right along with the brothers.
Eric Burke as the older bother, Lee, carries the clothing along with the attitude of Stanley Kowalski of “Streetcar Named Desire.” But this is Sam Shepard, not Tennessee Williams. Edward McCloud as Austin, gradually loses his earnest hard-working demeanor and both take to beer and whiskey bottles to ratchet up their verbal conflicts. They’re on stage together, rarely alone, throughout the two-act drama.
“True West” has been labeled as a “black comedy,” but this overused phrase has no real definition and it’s ill-suited here despite a few comedic moments. Lee comes back to the house with a TV set he’s stolen from the neighbors. “They don’t need it anyway. You couldn’t even steal a toaster,” he taunts his brother. Austin goes out and returns, his arms laden with a collection of stolen toasters.
The only intruder in this sibling face-off is Saul, a film producer, played by Al Liner. He’s waiting for Austin’s completed film treatment and is a sucker for Lee’s alcoholic blandishments. It seems Lee’s convinced he can write a screenplay and bullies Austin to write out a rough draft for him. Saul likes Lee’s ideas and wants Austin to polish up “Lee’s” outline and shove his own work on the back burner.
This development, it’s the only weak point in the play, merely heightens the tension. The consequences lead to violence, the typewriter thrashing, a brawl and destruction of the kitchen.
Late in the second act, Mom, the brother’s mother, makes an appearance. She’s horrified at the scene, tries to separate the brothers but ends up taking up her suitcases and leaving. Carol MacRea plays her difficult role with helpless anguish in all her actions and words.
“True West” is so tightly-wound and professionally acted it makes some of the Spreckels’ previous shows staged in the small theater seem tame by comparison.
“True West” made its debut in 1980 at San Francisco’s Magic Theater and then moved to New York. For those not acquainted with Sam Shepard’s playwriting talents, “True West” is a gritty, if somewhat disturbing example of what American theatre is all about.
As they say: “Brotherhood. It ain’t for sissies.”
True West
Reviewed by David Kashimba
Photo by Eric Chazankin
If you liked the Oscar winning movie "No Country for Old Men," based onCormac McCarthy’s novel, you’ll enjoy Sam Shepard’s True West now playing at Spreckels Center for the Performing Arts in beautiful Rohnert Park. Shepard is a contemporary of McCarthy and they both share a passion for the old west and other primal forces. When Austin (Edward McCloud) in True West tells his brother Lee (Eric Burke): “There’s no such thing as the west anymore. It’s dried up,” it could very easily be taken as a line from one of McCarthy’s novels.
The two authors also like to strip away all aspects of civilization and make their characters face the primal forces that once moved human beings before the advent of civilization and its discontents. In True West Austin is a successful screenwriter working on his latest script while house sitting for his vacationing mother. He spends his days typing his screenplay and watering his mother’s plants until his brother Lee suddenly shows up.
Austin has always been the good responsible brother. Lee is a burglar and has been in and out of trouble with the law all his life. Lee has a primal violence in him that is always right at the surface. When Lee shows up, it has been from several months living in the Mojave Desert and he looks like a cross between Charles Manson and John the Baptist. When Austin asks Lee if he’s all right, Lee tells him: “I’m not the one to worry about.” Indeed, Lee isn’t suppressing anything for the sake of civilization. He’s in touch with his primal vitality. Even though he uses it only for destructive purposes, he’s confident that he’s far better off than his brother who gets “paid to dream.”
But the problem with the human species is its duality. The most primal man still longs for civilization and the most civilized man longs to go back to his primal roots. Such is the dilemma of these two brothers and the resulting battle on stage is a knock down drag out dark comedy with an anthropological lesson you won’t forget.
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