Since its premiere at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in 1980, Sam Shepard’s True West has become almost a victim of its own success. The play, which charts the escalating rivalry between two brothers house-sitting their mother’s home in the Los Angeles hills, has been performed over the years by such luminaries as John Malkovich, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bruce Willis. Big names mean big box office, but they can also lead to a lessening of the play’s emotional impact as the action shifts farther and farther away from the audience.
What’s refreshing about Phillip Breen’s production for the Citz is how deeply it immerses us in the action, almost as though the proscenium had been taken down for the duration of the run. For at