Sam Shepard burst on the scene in the mid ‘60s with a raw
intensity that reconfigured the “family drama.” Betrayal was mother’s milk ...
Rage almost always fueled romance … Secrets were buried deep in the ground …
Brothers and sisters exploded taboos and the quintessential American male was a
cowboy racing demons across the desert.
Shepard died much too young last year which is perhaps why
his plays are now experiencing a resurgence. You won’t find a smarter or a
funnier TRUE WEST than Daniel Bourque’s savagely jocular production for HUB
Theatre (playing through April 28th). Bourque’s juggernaut pits
brother against brother, cleverly allowing us to see the shifting balance the very
moment the scales are tipped. If you haven’t encountered TRUE WEST before,
you’ll be struck by its visceral energy and dark humor. If you have, you’ll be
mightily impressed by Bourque’s shrewd intuition.
Of course, there’s a certain subtext to the
conversation when a movie producer arrives to discuss a screenplay (with Bob
Mussett’s smoldering brother). Of course, the scary brother (a fiercely
wild Victor Shopov) steals his thunder with talk of golf, sweaty locker room
showers and suggestive towel snapping … but no one has ever played the
producer scene that way before in the many, many productions I’ve seen. Robert
Orzalli is delightfully sleazy as the Hollywood
power broker bedecked with the requisite gold chains and white shoes. Add in
Maureen Adduci as the oblivious mom, and you have a hit, a palpable hit as the
Bard would say.
Ben Lieberson’s kitschy, middle class crescent set gives the
siblings lots of room to spar (with a kitchen sink for Shopov’s loping, furtive
brother to lounge in), while Jay Mobley’s original, evocative spaghetti western
music prepares us for the showdown at the OK Coral. Do not miss Hub’s TRUE
WEST. All performances are pay-what-you-can!
