Brotherly Loathe

Jan 27, 2011 at 4:00 am

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It is the curse of siblings to have but one mother to impress, one home to share, one family to inhabit and, most damagingly, the other sibling to measure oneself against. Austin is the hard-working and accommodating screenwriter who is watching mom’s house while she’s in Alaska so he can finish his latest script in solitude. Lee is his older brother, a petty criminal and drifter who crashes into the house as a matter of last resort. And now, under their mother’s roof once again but without her presence as referee, the men revert to the total war of boyhood. Austin schemes to become a screenwriter, and to cajole Lee into writing it for him (what are little brothers for?). And, bizarrely, something awakens in Austin that hungers for a footloose life of breaking and entering. Sam Shepard’s True West explores the family dynamic in comic -- and terrifying -- fashion. HotCity Theatre presents True West at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday (February 4 through 19) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; 314-289-4063 or www.hotcitytheatre.org). Tickets are $20 to $25.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 4. Continues through Feb. 19, 2011