On January 24, Tony and Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano bowed as brother versus brother in the Broadway revival of Sam Shepard鈥檚 True West at Roundabout Theatre Company.
Hawke, a friend of the late playwright who has acted in and directed multiple Shepard works, calls True West the 鈥減erfect play.鈥� He plays elder brother Lee, a grifter who disrupts the younger Austin鈥檚 stay at their mother鈥檚 house while she is away in Alaska. 半岛体育 spoke to Hawke and Dano, as well as director James Macdonald and co-stars Marylouise Burke and Gary Wilmes, about bowing in the new production. (Watch the full video below.)
鈥淚t's kind of like building Legos,鈥� Hawke told 半岛体育 of crafting his performance. 鈥淵ou just keep adding on. You don't think about the beginnings, you're just constantly thinking about how you can better do this.鈥�
Hawke is a longtime Shepard aficionado. (His PBS viewing of True West as a youngster sparked his aspirations for a career in the arts.) He starred in a 1995 Steppenwolf production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child and directed an Off-Broadway production of A Lie of the Mind. 鈥淚 knew [True West] was a comedy because I've done a bunch of Shepard, but there's other things I've learned about how well made this play is.鈥� Having tackled True West, what Shepard work would Hawke take on next? 鈥淚 wish that Paul and I could do鈥攖here's kind of a brother's trilogy鈥攕o if we could do Lie of the Mind and The Late Henry Moss in rep that would be really fun.鈥�
True West plays Broadway鈥檚 American Airlines Theatre in a limited engagement run with a closing scheduled for March 17.
