Sam Shepard

TRUE WEST

Austin is an aspiring screenwriter. He is about to sell his first script and to make it in Hollywood. He believes that hard work pays off. In his mother's absence, he writes at her house just outside of Los Angeles. His older brother shows up unexpectedly – like a ghost of the past. Lee belongs to the desert. He steals TVs. He has spent his entire life on the margins of society.

When the two meet under one roof, the dream of America as a land of opportunity turns into a battlefield. Shared childhood memories of catching snakes, watching westerns, playing cowboys and daydreaming, are fueled with their aspirations, different systems of values and attitudes towards life. A fierce, darkly funny duel emerges where the difficulties of brotherly love, resentment and ambition fuels the fire.

The legendary American playwright, screenwriter and actor Sam Shepard needs no introduction. He penned the screenplays for Zabriskie Point (1970) by Michelangelo Antonioni, Paris, Texas (1984) by Wim Wenders, and many other big-screen classics. His play True West has brought out unseen angles of iconic actors, and this is the very first stage version of the piece in Latvia.

The play is directed by the emerging Polish-born director Mateusz Stańak, who works in Amsterdam and Brussels, with a Belgian and Latvian team.

The production is developed with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

• This performance includes the smoking of cigarettes