Newspaper Article

HUMAN RACE'S TRIP WEST TRULY AT ITS BEST

Terry Morris THEATER CRITIC

1996

Overview

Staged by first-time director Stefan Klum, whose quick intellect and daring physical style as an actor have accessed anarchical harmony in the material, the production pays considerable homage to the definitive Steppenwolf Theatre presentation of more than a decade ago. As well it should. Like a financier who keeps getting deliveries of piggy banks, [Bruce] Cromer is a classically trained performer in a community that's been hung up on popular entertainment and contemporary novelty for years. He's always been good, in productions like Bus Stop and The Sea Horse, but up until now, he's always been been something of a fish out of water. He's always been a hitchhiker who keeps getting rides that refuse to take the turnoff to Stratford-on-Avon. Yet he's always kept his hope and his body in fighting trim, which he most definitely is in this agile, muscular, rewardingly detailed portrayal of Lee, the bad, hard-drinking, uneducated, dangerous, head-slapping brother in [Sam] Shepard's incredibly humorous but disturbing two-act play. At least, that's the way he starts out.

• Publisher: Atlanta Journal Constitution, LLC
• Subject: HUMAN RACE THEATRE COMPANY / TRUE WEST