The two authors also like to strip away all aspects of civilization and make their characters face the primal forces that once moved human beings before the advent of civilization and its discontents. In True West Austin is a successful screenwriter working on his latest script while house sitting for his vacationing mother. He spends his days typing his screenplay and watering his mother’s plants until his brother Lee suddenly shows up.

Austin has always been the good responsible brother. Lee is a burglar and has been in and out of trouble with the law all his life. Lee has a primal violence in him that is always right at the surface. When Lee shows up, it has been from several months living in the Mojave Desert and he looks like a cross between Charles Manson and John the Baptist. When Austin asks Lee if he’s all right, Lee tells him: “I’m not the one to worry about.” Indeed, Lee isn’t suppressing anything for the sake of civilization. He’s in touch with his primal vitality. Even though he uses it only for destructive purposes, he’s confident that he’s far better off than his brother who gets “paid to dream.”

But the problem with the human species is its duality. The most primal man still longs for civilization and the most civilized man longs to go back to his primal roots. Such is the dilemma of these two brothers and the resulting battle on stage is a knock down drag out dark comedy with an anthropological lesson you won’t forget.

For tickets or more information call (707) 523-4185 or visit www.6thstreetplayhouse.com.

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