Few False Moves in South Coast’s ‘True West’

When you look at the physical environment surrounding South Coast Repertory--a fountain, manicured lawns, surrounding high-rises, a posh performing arts center, a mega-mall across the busy street--you see the tamed West.

But walk inside the Second Stage right now and you’ll see the disruptive anarchy of Sam Shepard’s brilliant little play, “True West.”

Whether one vision is really “truer” than the other is subject to debate. It’s the kind of debate that might well arise from the experience of seeing this production’s four assured performances, despite a couple of deficiencies in the design and pacing.

“True West,” first produced in 1982, is at or near the top of the short list of plays that should be known by anyone who seeks to understand Southern California. It’s set in a suburban house at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, not far from where Shepard grew up. It says a lot about the human experience in these parts and even about the area’s role as the world’s incubator of movie myths.

Austin (Cameron Dye) has briefly returned to the area where he grew up in order to work on a screenplay. He’s using his mother’s house while she’s away in Alaska, and a producer who’s interested in his idea has agreed to drop by for a meeting. But first Austin must contend with the intrusion of his brother Lee (Paul Perri), a petty burglar who has just wandered in off the desert, where he was visiting their uncivilized hermit of a father.

At the beginning, Dye and Perri are a wildly discordant pair of siblings. Dye’s neatly dressed, watchful of nuances, trying to work at the typewriter even as he walks on eggshells around his volatile brother. Perri is a big, ragged lug, with stringy and unkempt hair, a suspicious attitude and a knack for coming up with new noises that distract Austin from his work. In a break from most previous Lees, Perri wears ugly, smudged eyeglasses.

When Austin talks about how he’s caring for his mother’s plants, Lee immediately responds that he could do the same--even as he stands on top of one of the planter boxes, within inches of crushing the little flecks of greenery.

As the play progresses, however, roles change. Lee worms his way into the affections of Austin’s producer (Hal Landon Jr.) with an idea for a Western, accompanied by a shrewd wager. The producer begins to lose interest in Austin’s idea. Lee buckles down to work on the screenplay--he even thrusts his glasses upward on his forehead just as his brother did earlier, perhaps hoping that a writer’s pose will help him write. But it doesn’t work.

By the time Mom (Martha McFarland) returns home, her two sons are at each other’s throats. Also by this time, the play is vibrating with slapstick comedy (the famous toaster scene) as well as with metaphorical meaning.

*

All of the performances, directed by Hope Alexander, hit the right notes. Perri exudes feral sensibilities, even when he’s on the verge of domestication, and it’s fun to trace the degrees of Dye’s gradual dishevelment. South Coast fans will enjoy noting company member Landon’s ponytail hanging down from his bald pate. McFarland’s brief appearance is all the funnier for being so intentionally flat and detached.

Although much of the design works well, there are a few problems. Shepard’s stage directions make clear that he considers the increasing noise of yapping coyotes to be a key ingredient of the second act, but here the coyotes are hardly noticeable. The typewriter indicates that we’re still in 1982, but a prominent gesture that uses a TV remote device and the general look of the TV set itself say it’s a little later.

More critically, why the abrupt, rushed ending? Shepard asked for a slow fade on the final tableau, but here it’s much too fast to resonate as it should. Don’t blink--you might miss it altogether.

Still, it would be a shame for any contemporary Westerner who hasn’t seen “True West” to miss this production altogether--or to arrive late. A word of caution for previous South Coast theatergoers: Evening performances on the Second Stage this year start earlier, at 7:45, and matinees at 2.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

* “True West,” South Coast Repertory, Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 24. $18-$45. (714) 708-5555. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Paul Perri: Lee

Cameron Dye: Austin

Hal Landon Jr.: Saul Kimmer

Martha McFarland: Mom

Written by Sam Shepard. Directed by Hope Alexander. Set by Michael C. Smith. Costumes by Alex Jaeger. Lighting by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz. Original music and sound by Max Kinberg. Fight consultant Ken Merckx. Production manager Jeff Gifford. Stage manager Jamie A. Tucker.