Of all the plays ever staged at the Pear Avenue Theatre, can one be more perfectly conceived for its diminutive space than “True West”?
The play, a classic in the canon of famed American playwright Sam Shepard, is set against the gaping-maw desert of Southern California that was Shepard’s birthplace and frequent inspiration.
Essentially a two-man show, “True West” revolves around the sibling rivalry of two brothers, Lee and Austin, who find themselves, after many years of separation, under the same roof for several days.
Lee and Austin function as a sort of yin and yang within the play’s world. Lee, played by Ray Renati, who also wears the director’s cap in this well-executed production, is a rough around the edges, loud mouthed alcoholic, who scrapes together a life on the Mohave Desert where he lives an isolated and destitute existence.
Austin, played by John Romano, is soft everywhere that Lee is hard. A screenwriter and Ivy Leaguer, Austin is a well-mannered suburbanite, and his pressed khakis and pastel polos clash with Lee’s sloppy appearance and ever-present beer.
For two hours on the stage, these brothers engage in a battle of wills that is at once sad and hilarious, and occasionally violent. “True West” is brought to life by the compelling performances of the lead actors, who make their task — carrying on with two hours of continuous, believable, emotionally charged dialogue — seem effortless.
Renati’s Lee is mean and vulnerable, brutish and sensitive, and he plays the part with a sort of wounded masculinity, one that struts and bangs around the stage, but can’t conceal its own insecure bravado.
Romano’s Austin, meanwhile, seems every bit the well-compensated screenwriter. He captures the sad duality of his character: Slumped over the typewriter, trying to complete a love story he plans to pitch to a slick Hollywood producer, he is affable and do-right but also on the edge, with hints of anger and hysteria that don’t emerge until the second half of the play.
The Pear, whose theater house holds only 40 seats, facilitates a visceral and intimate viewing of the brothers’ complex relationship and evolving identities. The action is, literally, in your face. When Lee takes a golf club and goes to town on a typewriter — the object of much of the brothers’ frustration — the violent physicality of the act, and the sharp metallic ring of the club striking the typewriter, made many in the audience wince and even jump.
All of the action in “True West” takes place in one setting, the kitchen of the brothers’ mother, which is impeccably organized, cheap looking, and straight out of the 1980s. Designer Ron Gasparinetti takes advantage of the audience’s close-up perspective by filling the kitchen’s every nook and cranny with realistic detail. As a result, though the brothers’ mother is glimpsed onstage only once, a sense of her presence is felt throughout.
Props are important in “True West,” and sufficed to say, a pile of stolen toasters plays a big part in the action. At The Pear, it truly feels like one is watching a piece of art being staged in the moment, with all of the machinations of the production exposed, so that one can experience, truly, what it looks like to put on a play.
For all this intimacy, there is one downfall: We can also see the smallest mistakes (which in this production are almost nonexistent). Look closely, for example, and you may notice that Lee, with his beer-stained wife-beaters and dirty jeans, is wearing leather boots that are bit too shiny and expensive-looking for his humble existence. At The Pear, you get to see everything.
INFORMATION
What: Sam Shepard’s “True West,” now showing at Pear Avenue Theatre
When: 8 p.m. showings (2 p.m. Sundays) now through Feb. 3; see Web site for details
Where: 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K
Cost: $20 general, $12 for students and seniors
Info: Visit www.thepear.org
