least in part because it made him a mar-tyr to Holocaust deniers. But Holocaustdenial would exist with or without mar-tyrs; deniers honor Brasillach because hewas a sincere Nazi and a committedanti-Semite. Those who deny that theHolocaust happened are always anti-Semitic. They say it never took place,but think it should have taken place.Like Brasillach himself, they have ampu-tated part of their brains. NR

• THEATER •

The OldNew Thing

C H A R L I E S C H U L M A N

S INCE the days of Lewis and Clark,the American West has seemed to

hold the promise not only of vast landand ample resources, hut also of anauthentic American identity. This mythhas only hecome more powerful duringthe 20th century through figures such asJackson Pollock, John Wayne, RonaldReagan, and the Marlhoro Man, icons oia lost, more real frontier. Sam Shepard'sTrue West (1980), recently revived for aBroadway run, aspires to that kind ofauthentic westem identity while closingthe book on it at the same time.

A prolific writer of mystical plays thatexplore a rootless, American-outlawsensibility, Shepard came onto thescene in the '60s and worked with Off-Off-Broadway theater groups such as LaMaMa and Cafe Cino, writing plays thateanied him eleven Obie awards and asmall, loyal following. Shepard has longheen preoccupied with the stock char-acters of American popular culture,from Hoss, the warrior/rock star in TheTooth of Crime (1972), to Dodge, thedissipated patriarch of the Pulitzerprize-winning Buried Child (1979), toColonel, a grizzled war veteran in Statesof Shock (1991).

In keeping with his plays, Shepard hascarefully cultivated a loner, maverick

Mr. Schulman is a playwright andscreenwriter in New York City.

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mystique. Photographs oi him invariablyinclude the requisite cowboy hat andvest, with a cigarette dangUng from hismouth; he often conducts interviews byphone from a ranch in an undisclosedlocation. He has also utidergone a trans-formation from bohemian playwright toHollywood actor, appearing in suitablymanly roles in movies such as ThePelicari Brit:/and The Right Stuff.

True West is Shepard's most conven-tional and often-produced play, the thirdin a series of family dramas that markedrhe end of his more experimental careerand brought bis work to the attention ofa wider audience. Despite innumerableawards and critical praise, the currentCircle in the Square production, starringPhilip Seymour Hotfman and John C.Rcilly. is the tirst to have a successful runon Broadway and has become thesubject of much media hype.

True Wesi tells the story of twobrothers: Austin, a successful. IvyLeague-educated screenwriter, andLcc, a slightly unhinged drifter whohas spent the last several years roam-ing tbe desert. The brothers baveconverged on their childhood homeon the edge ot Los Angelcs's subur-ban sprawl while their mother isvacationing in Alaska. Austin bascome to get away from bis wife andkids so be can work on his latestscript; Lee has returned broke, andplans to burglarize the neighbors' homes.

Conversations between the brothersconvince Lee that be sbould write ascreenplay about bis experiences in tbedesert. Lee disrupts a meeting betweenAustin and bis slick Jewish producerSaul Kimmer {Robert LuPone) and endsup witb a development deal. WbenAustin refuses to ghostwrite Lee's story,his own project is dropped, and he failsinto drunken despair. This dramaticreversal, in wbich each brother assumestbe other's persona, ignites a conflictthat continues through tbe play'scharged final scene.

This reversal seems at first to hinge onthe differences between the two broth-ers: Austin's Hollywood insincerity ver-sus the authenticity of what Kimmercalls Lee's "true-to-life western." It'sclear, however, that Kimmer wouldn'tknow an authentic idea if he stepped inone. Shepard's foil and real target here isHollywood, with its insatiable hunger to

develop the untouched landscape of reallife into formulas for mass consumption.

As Lee reads from his script, it beginsto sound like a hackneyed version of tbeWest appropriated from a B movie.Meanwhile, a drunken Austin recountshis recent visit to their estranged alco-holic father in which the old man loseshis false teeth in a doggie bag full of left-over chop suey. Tbis pathetic revelationbriefly unites the brothers in tbe realiza-tion that only such personal stories, atonce both heartbreaking and hilarious,really ring true.

In tbe end, one feels the brothers (andtheir different Wests) ate equally inau-thentic and tainted by tbeir associationwith Tinseltown's schlocky superficiali-ty. The only true West appears in thebleak view of Alaska presented by

Philip Seymour Hoffrrum, John C. Reiily,and Robert LuPone in Ttue West

Austin and Lee's mother (Celia West-on), who returns at the end disillusionedfrom her vacation. "It was tbe worst feel-ing being up tbere. In Alaska staring outtbe window. I never felt so desperatebefore," she says plaintively of tbe onlyremaining American frontier. Shepardseems to suggest that everythingHollywood has not yet appropriated istotally undesirable.

The itony of True West is that whileeach brother attempts to maintainhis authenticity in the face of theinsatiable machinery of popular cul-ture, the play itself owes its success totheater actors for whom these roleshave served as springboards to Holly-wood fame. Although the first NewYork production with Petet Boyle andTommy Lee Jones was panned by critics(and disavowed by Shepard), the 1982production at Chicago's SteppenwolfTheatet starring John Malkovich atidGary Sinise was widely praised and

launched both actors' screen careers.Tbe current production once again

features two up-and-coming movieactors. Tbe new twist tin the play, mas-terminded by director Matthew War-cbus, has Hoffman (The Talented Mr.Ripley, Magnolia) and Reilly {Muf^olia,Boogie Nights) rotating roles every threeperformances. Tbis is more than a high-ly effective public-relations gimmickthat encourages repeat visits by theaudience. The brothers' interchange-ability is thoroughly supported by tbetext—they are meant to be seen as twosides of the same persoti—and bothactors give powerful perfomiances.

However, this faithfulness to tbe spiritof Tme West is utidercut by other aspectsof the production, in particular theabsence of an intermission, strategically

placed by Shepard to highlight tbeclimactic reversal. The decision toremove the intermission makes tbebrothers' transformation seem lesscomplete tban in othet productions,and the sttong perfonnances in thesecond act don't compensate for thiserror in judgment. The result is thatthe production seems slightly out of

5 balance: Lee's manic quality pre-I dominates and muffles the frill effectI of Austin's reversal. There is also a

tendency to play for laughs ratherthan fully expose the painful desper-ation at the play's core.

True West reprised the themes andcharacters of Shepard's earlier work in afar more conventional form, resulting inwider success for the playwright. Twentyyears later, these themes and chatactershave come to seem ordinary and familiar.Tbe wild applause and standing ovationstbat bave greeted the current produc-tion therefore suggest bow much haschanged in our perception of "authentic-ity" in theater. Shepard's depiction ofderacinated antihetoes roaming a dero-manticized American West has becometbe norm in tbe age of Roseunne andNatural Bom Killers. The decision to casttwo "indie" film stars cleverly enhancesthe audience's perception that they ateexperiencing a cutting-edge theatricalevent. The prodtiction's success, then,lies not so much in any newfound or dar-ing insight about the search for anauthentic American self as in the ct>m-mercialization of the avant-gatde clichesit both embodies and exploits. NR

NATIONAL REVIEW/JUNE 19, 2000