Interview: Nancy Palk on Directing True West

Stuart Hughes and Mike Ross in True West. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Nancy Palk is accustomed to being around men. "I happen to have married a man and had three sons," she says, "I'm this lone female trying to figure out my boys." Needless to say, she is well prepared to lead the predominately male cast of True West, Sam Shepard's 1980 play about the relationship between estranged brothers, now on stage at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

"A long time ago, my husband read a book about male depression, and I was fascinated by it," Palk says. "As a girl grows up, she becomes more and more herself, whereas men, they're a boy up to a certain age, and then they're suddenly told you can't be that. You can't be who you are anymore, now you've got to be a man. This is sort of the beginning point of a lot of difficulty for men."

Shepard's play examines this conflict through the characters of Austin, a screenwriter (played by Mike Ross) and Lee, a petty criminal (Stuart Hughes).

"One brother is a family man and provider, with a wife and home and children, and the other brother is an adventurer, a petty thief, a lone wolf, out in the desert, with no responsibilities and no home," Palk explains. "They come together after having been apart for well over five years, and you get the feeling that there is a lot of history. They're 10 years apart, so one was born before the Second World War and one was born after. These two brothers are seemingly completely different, but then yearn for each other's lifestyle, and you watch through the course of the play as they kind of become each other."

Shepard was fascinated by the idea of duality, a theme that Palk is interested in as well. "Who would you be in crisis time? Would you be the one who would take the people and hide them in your attic, or would you be the one who would shut their eyes and pretend it wasn't happening? I sort of see both sides in me. I'm obsessed with that idea of good and evil inside all of us, and the war we have all the time about trying to be a good person, and having other desires at the same time."

Ultimately Palk's goal is to get to the kernel of the playwright's vision. "That is what it's about," she says, "not about trying to do anything different with it."

Thankfully she has two supportive leads in Ross and Hughes. "I've learned more as an actor watching these guys who are so positive. I find it moving to watch people who have been given really good parts, they know they've been given really good parts, and they're working really hard. If I want to let them off 10 minutes early, they'll say no, let's just do this one more time." Other than two brief appearances by a producer, Saul Kimmer (Ari Cohen), and the brothers' mother (Patricia Hamilton) in the last scene, True West is more or less a two-hander starring Ross and Hughes.

As a director, Palk has learned to let the actors take over. "You have to be able to have them feel ready to let go, because it demands a lot of abandon. They have to get wildly drunk, they have to be sloppy and messy and fight." She has directed Ross before in Judith Thompson's White Biting Dog, but this is her first time directing Hughes. "I have to say, these guys have been so supportive of a newcomer director, and there have been no egos at all in the room. It's just all about the work. I think everybody would say it's been a really healthy rehearsal atmosphere, so I give it to them for making me feel welcome."

And, she adds, "It's cool being the boss of all that testosterone."

True West opens Wednesday April 3 and runs until May 4 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Visit soulpepper.ca for more information and to buy tickets.