Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Penned in 1980, "True West" remains a very fine American play, but the new production from Shattered Globe Theatre is not, for me, distinctive, deep or determined enough to really make a case for itself. You certainly don't have any sense of comment on the work's place in the Chicago gestalt."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...As director Yost suggests in his program note, the characters may be seen as different aspects of the same person-perhaps the playwright himself, trying to reconcile his conflicting impulses as professional artist and rebellious outlaw. What once felt potent as a meditation on the decline of America's "Wild West" heritage today feels as out of date as the portable manual typewriter on which Austin taps out his script. But it's still catnip for actors, and Viol and Wiens have a field day with the material."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Austin and Lee are Jungian poster boys, brothers who seem to hold nothing in common, the one a buttoned-up intellectual writer and the other a beer-gulping ruffian and petty thief. But deep down, each pines for the life the other leads. They are the conjoined, complex antiheroes of Sam Shepard's iconic 1980 play "True West," and they are madly, marvelously superimposed in a startling production by Shattered Globe Theatre."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Shepard’s enthralling storytelling and Wiens’ captivating performance make Shattered Globe’s production of True West one well worth seeing. Like watching in slow motion a vicious battle between two starving wolves, horror and awe of their destructive grace grip you and compel you to watch on."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...This American classic is being given a fine revival by one of Chicago’s most consistently competent storefront theatre companies. While it’s often difficult to witness the bitter angst, antagonism and pain in this story, Shepard’s play never-the-less remains a brilliant study in the duality between siblings or within an individual. The subtle way these two men morph into one another provides this unique drama with the necessary psychological tension. And, in this portrait of sibling rivalry gone berserk, we’re left with one fascinating and thought-provoking evening of theatre."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...I've seen Joseph Wiens play several contemporary males and a 19th century seaman. But I've never seen him as scary as he is playing Lee, the black sheep of the two brothers. Tall, bulky, bald and bad, he guzzles can after can of beer and terrorizes his respectable if weasly brother Austin, a screenwriter... until he doesn't. Lee persuades Austin's agent Saul (Rob Frankel) that he has a fabulous idea for a screenplay. And why be surprised that Lee succeeds in that persuasion? He talks Saul into a game of golf he didn't want to play and somehow persuades him to give him his own golf clubs-"as an advance.""
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Myriad problems plague this production from the staging to the casting. The set, courtesy Greg Pinsonault, is a picture of post-war serenity that is unpacked in most repellant fashion over the course of the play. However, its dramatic thrust means that leads Kevin Viol and Joseph Wiens are frequently in the undesirable position of playing lengthy scenes with their backs to large portions of the audience. From where I was sitting I hardly glimpsed Viol’s face during the duration of the first act and I imagine those elsewhere in the audience might have had similar complaints."