An iconic play by the late Sam Shepard – considered by many the greatest American playwright of his generation – is coming to Peninsula Productions in White Rock.
Shepard’s darkly comic 1980 drama True West will have a limited run at Peninsula’s Studio Theatre in Centennial Park, Oct. 20 to Oct. 22 and Oct. 27 to Oct. 28 at 7 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 23 and Oct. 29.
Dramatic and often surreal, the play is directed by actor/director Julianne Christie (who this year directed White Rock Players’ Other Desert Cities, and also starred in Peninsula’s Sorry Wrong Number).
The plot, which veers from lighter moments to the brink of tragedy, turns on a struggle for power between two brothers – Lee, a drifter and petty thief, and Austin, a successful playwright – while they attempt to collaborate on a screenplay in their mother’s southern California home.
Likely to be an equally hot ticket as other recent Peninsula shows, True West has been described as Shepard’s “card-carrying audience pleaser.”
But potential audience members should act fast in reserving tickets, producer and Peninsula executive director Janet Ellis said.
Advance sales for True West have already been so strong that a second week of performances were added to what was originally going to be a three-show run, she said.
Even so, seats should be reserved early, she said – all shows sell out quickly at Peninsula’s limited-audience, experimental ‘black box’-style theatre space.
Long-known as a showcase piece for male actors, True West offers a great showcase for rising young Vancouver-area actors Harrison MacDonald (as Austin) and Jesse Irving (as Lee).
MacDonald has done several shows with Peninsula Productions (including his most recent role, Gerald Strange, in this summer’s The Stranger) and continues to appear in film and TV roles.
Irving, too, has worked prominently in film, but True West’s Lee shows every sign of being a breakout role for him on stage, Christie said,
In fact, the two actors’ desire to do the show was the catalyst for the production, Christie said.
“Harrison brought it to me and asked if I wanted to direct it, and I said yes immediately,” she said. “I’ve worked with Harrison several times – including Other Desert Cities for the White Rock Players Club – and have always been impressed by his versatility and commitment; the way he listens and observes and quietly puts everything together.
“I didn’t know Jesse, but when I met him, I thought, my God, is this Woody Harrelson’s son?” she said, adding that Irving brings a Harrelson-like quality of violent, dangerous unpredictability to the role of Lee that helps drive the play.
“They’re both brilliant and so committed to their craft,” Christie said. “I feel so lucky to be working with them.”
Also featured in the production are Jan Chadburn as “Mom” and Tomas Gamba as producer Saul Kimmer.
“Tomas I’ve worked with in both stage and television,” she said. “He’s just perfect as Saul, and Jan, who is a newcomer to the production – I was originally going to play the role, but life things got in the way – is getting the right surreal quality as the mother. It’s one of the most obvious comedic parts of the play.”
In True West, responsible, sensitive and scholarly family man Austin has taken refuge at his mother’s immaculate home, while she takes a cruise to Alaska, as an opportunity to finish his long-in-the-works screenplay for Saul.
But suddenly ne’er do well older brother Lee drifts in, spinning wild tales of money he has scored and blown, and suggesting an idea for a screenplay – a western – to Saul that the latter likes better than Austin’s cherished project.
During what turns into a marathon drinking session between the two brothers, Lee literally and figuratively destroys the comfortable order of their mother’s house, driving Austin to the edge of madness and provoking a situation in which their roles have almost become reversed.
In a departure from Peninsula’s normal studio theatre practice, the house – almost a character in itself – is represented by a realistic ‘box’ set, Christie said, adding that she sees the play as a metaphor for the modern American West; a study of the fall-out from the unraveling of potent myths, and the damage done by family members past and present.
“Your attitude to the play changes as you go through the decades,” she said. “In the beginning it’s just this beautiful, theatrical roller-coaster between these two characters.
“But I believe the reason Sheperd’s plays rings true and stays true is that so many people can identify with the idea of living a lie,” she said.
“This is a play that will leave you reeling – and leave you feeling,” she added.
Peninsula Productions’ studio theatre is located next to the arena building in Centennial Park, at 14600 North Bluff Rd.
All tickets are $30 at www.showpass.com
alex.browne@peacearchnews.com
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