True West: the Californian desert blows into Wash Common

True West, by Sam Shepard, is a powerful play about two brothers, who seem like opposite characters, but end up almost swapping roles.

In a Broadway revival in 2000, the two actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C Reilly, playing the brothers, would swap roles each night, a bit like Cumberbatch and Malkovich in ‘Frankenstein’.

What a fantastic way to explore the characters.

Shepard focuses on the fact that we all have duality in our characters, which Austin, a quiet-seeming, serious-thinking playwright, and Lee, a petty criminal, prone to violence, exemplify in this play. Although it is serious drama, there is a great deal of hilarity here, too; a compulsion to steal toasters, for instance, features strongly.

It’s also pretty hard to ignore the prescience of Shepard’s play, written in 1980, with the sociopathic, lying and bullying tendencies of Lee perhaps echoing a certain ex-president of the United States, and his bid to overthrow civilised American society. Just a thought.

Pippa Higgins, who directs this brilliant piece, has been acting with New Era since she was a child, first appearing in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and makes her full directorial debut this summer.

She previously co-directed a short play, ‘A Dog’s Life’, when she was only a teenager. New Era is one of her favourite places in world, with its red velvet seats and curtains, and lovely people: it feels like home.

Directing has been an eye-opening experience for her, involving liaison with people doing so many behind the scenes jobs she did not even know existed. Finding a play to direct was the easy bit, as she had fallen in love with True West at a performance seen four years ago, which she principally remembers for the ‘millions of toasters making toast, and golf clubs smashing typewriters’. Sounds like a nightmare for the props team!

The New Era Players present ‘True West’ on August 24-26 and August 29- September 2 at New Era Theatre, Andover Road, Wash Common.

Tickets are £12 each and are available online at ticketsource.co.uk/new-era-players. For other enquiries, email the Box Office at boxoffice@neweraplayers.org or call 07919 916009.

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

Sally Hall