Sam Shepard

After an introduction to the life and work of Sam Shepard, John will examine the many themes that animate his 1984 play True West, which is being presented in the spring semester by the UMW Theatre Department.

The play answers the dramatic question: What happens when two antagonistic brothers are couped up in their mother’s house on the edge of the desert? Before the final standoff, a typewriter, ample toast, and a badly abused ten iron will be weaponized by the pair.

Shepard’s trademark mix of dark humor, family treachery, and dramatic tension are present throughout True West. However, its author is out for something more with this play. Though the future Pulitzer finalist almost died stillborn.

The playwright knew True West was the best thing he’d written as soon as the play was finished. Yet, getting its premiere off the ground in New York City was long delayed by none other than Shepard’s own actions – his disappearing at critical times during pre-production in order to star in the film Raggedy Man, and sparking endless long-distance battles with legendary producer Joe Papp over casting choices. John will present a short version of this perplexing incident in Shepard’s career and how the play was ultimately pulled from the fire and restored in a second “premiere,” 3,000 miles from Broadway.

The themes to be subsequently discussed will include the long and twisty roots of Shepard’s belief in multiple personalities, which in part drives the plot of True West. As an adult, this idea was reinforced for him through his involvement with G.I. Gurdjief, a Russian mystic of dubious reputation. John will discuss the main ideas behind Gurdjief’s belief system and the ways in which it impacted both play and playwright.

Shepard’s relationship with his alcoholic father, a one-time war hero and teacher who became mostly absent from his son’s post-adolescent life, hovers like a specter over True West. He is a subject of both humor and fear, and always a cautionary tale that the two brothers must recognize before it becomes too late for them.

The closing of the frontier in 1890 and the subsequent death of the American West were topics that long interested Shepard. In his plays and prose, he often riffs on the idea of an authentic West versus its disheartening modern replacement marked by overdevelopment, fake adobe storefronts, rampant consumerism, and casual vulgarity. As he famously said early in his career, “Old ranchero California is dead.”