True West follows the story of two estranged brothers, Austin and Lee. Austin has a successful budding career in the film industry. He is house sitting for his mother in southern California while she is away in Alaska. He plans to work in peace and quiet on a new screenplay to sell to Saul (a movie producer.) Lee, his older brother, a petty thief and a drifter, unexpectedly shows up and proceeds to disrupt Austin’s life, eventually managing to take over the writing (and selling) the screenplay himself. The clash between the two results in an explosive confrontation that reveals the dual nature of their personalities, and their secret desires to trade their lives for what the other (seemingly) has.
True West by Sam Shepard. Directed by Mike Wise.
