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True West
By Sam Shepard

    Fresh from their movie roles in Magnolia, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly team up to play brothers in the superb new revival of Sam Shepard’s True West now on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre. The audience, however, will have the chance to see each of these actors in both roles, as the duo is alternating parts for the run of the show. (A coin toss determined who played which part on Opening Night.) During the performance of the show I saw, Hoffman played Austin, the budding screenwriter, while Reilly played Lee, his estranged sibling.
    A Shepard classic, True West centers on the two brothers, who at the beginning of the play are as different as night and day. Austin has become successful middle class—he has an Ivy-League education, a house, a wife and children. Austin followed their father into the desert and specializes in petty burglary. The play opens as Austin is house-sitting at their mother’s house in Los Angeles. He has timed his visit to LA to set up a meeting with a producer (a smarmy Robert LuPone) about his screenplay. His brother Lee turns up unexpectedly after a long absence.
    As Austin, Hoffman displays a gentle, earnest quality. Austin, it appears, has always been a bit of a nerd. He is the type of man who, when assigned to the task of caring for his mother’s plants, not only waters them but also sprays the leaves carefully. His shoulders stooped and his large frame bent delicately over the manual typewriter, Hoffman looks boyish and slightly distressed, as though the presence of his brother has returned him to his anxious adolescence. On hearing Lee’s plan to rob his mother’s neighbors in the night, he very gently tries to offer alternatives but soon resigns himself to his brother’s plans with a sigh and even lends Lee his car. A beautifully subtle and almost understated performance, Hoffman provides a perfect contrast to Reilly’s explosive con man.
    Reilly’s Lee is a menacing presence – he erupts unexpectedly, slams things down angrily and keeps Austin on edge as he ransacks their mother’s house for something of value. He is danger personified but Reilly handles the part brilliantly and manages to be both threatening and funny. While Hoffman fidgets and self-consciously tucks his shirt into his pants, Reilly struts about arrogantly and peacock-like, shoulders back, gut out (his swollen stomach shows over the top of his jeans) wreaking havoc in their mother’s pristine kitchen and turning Austin’s reality upside down. By the end of the play, the set is a mess and the two brothers have reversed roles.
    Lee, who regards himself a pioneer for going into the desert, now craves the material things Hollywood offers. Seeing LuPone, he pitches him his own movie. Austin, who has had his beloved screenplay dropped in favor of his brother’s wild cowboy tale, wants to leave his life behind and move into the desert chasing what he believes to be the real American dream. Each brother is disillusioned with his own life; what they both really want is to be each other and Shepard writes a savage final scene where the brothers battle it out.
    Matthew Warchus has directed a first-rate, dazzling production that keeps the audience enthralled. But it is Hoffman and Reilly that make True West a theatrical must-see. Two of the finest actors of their generation, the duo turn in remarkable performances full of force and complexity. It is mesmerizing to see them as the brothers – the two are marvelous character actors whose talent borders on genius. Acting like this does not come along often, let alone twice in one production.
                                                                                             - Nella Vera