True West Analysis

The main setting of the play is Austin and Lee's mom's house. It's the early 1980s, although the year isn't extremely important. The play is in no way dated, but there are a few things, like the ph...

Put it on the StageTrue West is a drama in the true "literature written to be performed" sense. While we sometimes think of drama as anything that is dramatic or even just "sad," the drama genre is...

Nailing down the tone of a play can be tough, and it's something that actors and directors struggle with all the time. Play a farce like it's a realistic drama and the production can just fall apar...

Shepard never wastes words. His characters talk to each other like they are simply having a conversation, and he manages to get his points across in a very short time. When poetic language enters i...

In his mind, Lee's movie represents a true depiction of the West, or, as Lee tells it, Saul thinks his movie is "the first authentic Western to come along in a decade" (2.5.84). The funny thing abo...

Whew. That is a big question when it comes to True West. As straightforward as most of this play is, the end is not at all. While we've been given realistic sounds, sets, costumes, and dialogue, we...

While the characters and their motivations in True West might be out of whack, the play itself is pretty straightforward. Shepard uses very realistic language and settings, and the events unfold ch...

It's a Period Piece!Austin has come to his mother's house to focus on his next big writing project, a period piece about love. He's been talking with a Hollywood producer about the idea, and it loo...

As far as tragedies go, True West doesn't fall as easily into this category as say Romeo and Juliet or King Lear; Shepard isn't writing tragedy on a grand scale or anything like that. However, when...

Just because True West is a relatively short play written in only two acts, that doesn't mean it can't fit into the traditional three act plot structure. In fact, this is one of Shepard's more trad...

Sure, they appeared together in True West, but Malkovich and Sinise also rocked it in a major movie version of Of Mice and Men. (Source) Along with being a world-renowned playwright, Sam Shepard i...

What can we say? There's just no sex or romance in this one. Lee does try to track down a woman he once knew for what seems like a meaningless fling, but that scene lasts about a minute, and he nev...

Geronimo (1.2.76)Pablo Picasso (2.9.165, 168, 176-177) Kirk Douglas (1.3.139,147,152)Lonely are the Brave: this is a 1962 film starring (you guessed it) Kirk Douglas. (1.3.146-147)Al Jolson: This g...