STAGE REVIEW 'True West' makes true mess in bringing brothers together

The two main actors will switch roles in next weekend's performances.
By GARRY L. CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NILES -- "A watched pot never boils," or so says the old adage. But in the case of "True West," which opened Friday night at Trumbull New Theatre, the audience sees that pot bubbling the moment the lights come up, and before the evening's over things have boiled over completely.
"True West" is a drama by Sam Shepard that features comic overtones and centers on the relationship, or lack thereof, between two brothers, Austin and Lee, and their divergent world views. Austin is the scholar, an Ivy League graduate and Hollywood scriptwriter with a wife and children. Lee is his antithesis, a petty thief and drifter. Through their dialogue with each other, both are slowly coming to the realization that they envy each other's lifestyle. Austin is house-sitting for their mother who is on a trip to Alaska. Enter Lee, and with him comes trouble. And mom's house will never be the same again.
To that end, circumstances involving a movie producer and an outline for a true old-style western, bring the brothers to the point of attempting to collaborate. And that ends in some disastrous, albeit at times hilarious, results.
Cast
John Cox and Nicholas Cordova as Austin and Lee, respectively, gave thoroughly convincing performances. Their drunken sprawling was as real and as messy as one could find, and Cox's bit with a bunch of toasters was priceless. The brothers' repartee came fast and furiously realistic as well, each one vacillating in a love-hate type of conversation. This gave a very authentic air to the proceedings.
Audiences who attend today's matinee will see the play in this format. For next weekend's performances, however, the two actors will be trading roles, which should provide for some interesting comparisons for those who see them in both parts.
Supporting them in fine form was John Timmins as Saul, the Hollywood producer, and Molly Galano as their mother. Her character had extremely odd reactions to the state of her home when she arrived unexpectedly, but it was just that characterization that made it believable for her to have raised these two buffoons.
Dr. Jim Lapolla's direction has made for a nice, tight, fast-paced production with laughs and surprises intermingled with an underlying sense of sadness for the brothers' estranged relationship, seen all to often in real life.
The set was well-wrought, and my sympathies go to those who have to clean it up after each performance.