Bad blood: Simon Maiden and Darcy Kent as brothers. Photo: Prudence Upton
Sam Shepard’s scorching look at sibling rivalry, masculinity and aspects of the American Dream is darkly comedic. Austin (Darcy Kent) has agreed to housesit his mother’s place in a remote part of California while she takes a holiday because it will provide the tranquillity he needs to finish the script for a lucrative Hollywood film contract. We seem him tapping away at a manual typewriter. All seems quiet, except lurking in the shadows is Austin’s volatile and somewhat menacing brother Lee (Simon Maiden), the antithesis of conservatively dressed, cerebral Austin. Lee is dirty and unkempt, likes a beer or three and has been living rough in the desert. And, it soon transpires, isn’t adverse to a bit of burglary to keep the wolf (or the cayotes in the case) from the door.
We feel for Austin, whose temper is tested time and again as he tries to work amid constant interruptions from a badgering and taunting Lee. Having bribed his brother with a loan of his car and exacted a promise that he will make himself scarce when Austin holds an important meeting with movie executive Saul (Frank Lugton), Lee breaks that promise and proceeds to ingratiate himself with the producer. Austin cannot believe that Saul is falling for his brother’s pushy con-man tactics but finds himself outmanouevred, the upshot of which is that Lee completely hijacks Austin’s project and the two brothers must now cooperate to get a movie deal done.
As the pair fight for control of each other, they unleash a torrent of tempers, resentment and an expose of each other’s lives. It’s almost too awful to watch (in a ‘nails down the blackboard’ way) except that Kent and Maiden are quite superb as they fight each other, mentally and physically. And drunkenly (Kent’s turns as a drunk were leavening, providing much laughter in this dark tale). Meanwhile, Maiden’s Lee is mercurial; violent one minute, wheedling and needling the next.
Shepard has said of this work that he ‘wanted to write a play about double nature… to give a taste of what it feels like to be two-sided. It’s a real thing, double nature. I think we’re split in a much more devastating way than psychology can ever reveal.’
So as True West progresses we hear one brother almost parroting what the other has said earlier; we see their movements mirrored (Iain Sinclair directs this play and keeps the tension taut all the way through). The nomadic, penniless drifter and successful family man seem hellbent on self-destruction as each begins to want what the other has.
Vanessa Downing’s part as the mother, who returns unexpectedly towards the conclusion of the play is also perfectly pitched. The role may be relatively small, but her almost deadpan performance still conveys a character that is as betrayed and disillusioned as her offspring. And tragic as it all is, she, too, makes as laugh. Or wince.
It’s a dark tale, wonderfully enacted and the story and the performances stay with you.
At the Ensemble until 11 October
Tickets: $43-$90
https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/true-west/
