True West

Director Steven O’Shea did a fine job realising the languid Americana of Sam Shepard’s True West, thanks in no small part to a firecracker performance from Stuart Warwick. The charismatic Warwick excelled in the bristling bravado of roustabout Lee, exuding fiery menace in his laborious, drawling manipulation of his doomed brother.

Will Cooper brilliantly captured the fidgety and frustrated Austin in the first act, but the play lost its way some when the frustration boiled over into furious delirium. The slowly building tension gave way to ‘The Young Ones’ levels of anarchy, with all manner of props thrown and flung about, raised voices and heightened melodrama, resulting in an unrewarding and tonally confusing payoff.

Regardless of the disjointed tone however, Sam Shepard’s world was well realised (with some great lighting effects utilised for the window and a simmering fire and a comprehensive ’50s style for the mother’s home), and the performance was beguiling and involving.

New Venture Theatre, 20 January 2018 (Runs until 27 Jan)

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