Picasso's in town, isn't that incredible?

Samuel Shepherd’s True West had a “certain ring of truth” to it, did it not? The bitter sibling rivalry, life’s unfair ironies, the incessant background noises; True West is realism at its finest. Shepherd ensured the play would remain his own with exceptionally demanding and specific stage directions even going so far as to implicitly order that the director not take any sort of creative license in regards to the costumes or set design. Admittedly, I felt terrible for Austin’s regression of character, watching his insecurities manifest themselves in his own utter self-destruction. Meanwhile Lee clearly demonstrates issues of feeling abandoned, presumably by their alcoholic father, and acts out upon this feeling, all the while developing his father’s vice. While I found Lee’s inadequacies to be fueled by immaturity and self-pity, I could easily relate to the motivating factor in Austin’s demise, watching someone so miserably undeserving as Lee so casually receive the reward Austin had been so laboriously working towards his entire life. The minor absurdist element, the mother, was probably my favorite character for her unparalleled comic relief in what had otherwise turned from quaint, sitcom-inspired banter into a maddeningly tense exchange of drunken ramblings and misdeeds. I do admit that I found the character of Saul Kimmer frustrating, as I could not quite understand how he so easily allows himself to be fooled by Lee, even with respect to, if not especially because of, the slimy-Hollywood-agent stereotype. However, such a small suspension of disbelief is acceptable in such a notably fantastic piece, and I am truly excited to watch the movie.