True West

Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

Critic's Pick - "John Malkovich is everywhere, even where he's not. While the actor continues his run in "Lost Land" at Steppenwolf Theatre, ghostly reminders of an indelible Malkovich performance from a generation ago haunt each new performer undertaking the role, whenever a revival of "True West" surfaces.

The latest "True West" in Chicago comes courtesy of The Hypocrites, performing in the basement space of Wicker Park's Chopin Theatre. It's an entertaining production, and the strongest element, along with Sean Graney's droll scenic design, depicting a Carter-era Southern California kitchen and Astroturfed patio, is Paul Noble's performance as Lee.

This is the role Malkovich played opposite Gary Sinise in Sam Shepard's 1980 play, produced in 1982 by Steppenwolf. Most actors tend to respond well to volatile sociopaths. Noble is one of them. After disappearing into the bland woodwork of "Paragon Springs," a recent TimeLine Theatre show, here he's all fire and purpose, aggression with a dash of hurt. Noble's smart enough to stop short of Malkoviching it up. He and director Geoff Button know that way lies potentially tiresome madness. The funny thing is, Malkovich realizes it too: In "Lost Land" Malkovich is doing his honorable, level, rather dutiful best to portray a conflicted liberal idealist. Better than anybody, Malkovich knows he can't "Do Malkovich" when it doesn't make sense. Otherwise he'd end up playing Lee in "True West" no matter who he was playing.

Shepard's play remains a rock-solid slippery slope, a comic indictment of Hollywood that transcends the usual Hollywood-is-evil cliches. (It is evil, but still.) Struggling screenwriter Austin (Brad Harbaugh) is housesitting for his vacationing mother (Kay Schmitt). Brother Lee has arrived unexpectedly, a burglar and a refugee of the Mohave at odds with the west Los Angeles has become. The brothers' father is a potent offstage presence, a destitute drunk. There's a little of the old man in Austin, and little more of him in Lee. Shepard's plot is a simple reversal of fortune, beautifully sustained: With a touching sort of inevitability, Lee doesn't just befriend Austin's producer (Gregory Hardigan), he sells him his idea for a contemporary western, zooming his brother at his own game.

By the time "True West" reaches its tantalizingly open-ended conclusion, the brothers have become the characters in Lee's story, out for blood but suffused in regret. Noble and Schmitt, the latter doing nuanced work in a small and somewhat thin role, are very good. Harbaugh's Austin is vaguely defined; it's the tougher of the brother roles, to be sure, but this performance needs some sharper edges. Harbaugh does, however, come alive when the violence (however tentatively choreographed) kicks in.

As for Graney's primo scenic design, it is topped, subtly, by a trickly fake-waterfall on the flagstone walls ? a perfect lying image of an endless Southern California water supply" -