Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard and directed by renowned Villanova theatre professor Joanna Rotté, “True West” is a dark comedy dealing with sibling rivalry and family dysfunction. The main characters are brothers Austin and Lee played by grad students Christopher Pegg and John Kiefer Galla respectively. Austin is an Ivy League educated writer whereas Lee is a thief and a drifter. Both return to their family home outside of L.A. to try to sell a producer their screenplay ideas. The two rival brothers try very hard to adopt a certain persona — Austin the successful screenwriter and Lee the cowboy outlaw — but as the play progresses, these personas begin to crumble and they each begin to act more like the other. Austin and Lee antagonize each other as they come to realize that their similarities outweigh their differences.

Director Rotté says, “The idea that I value in this play is Shepard’s insight that we as human beings do not have a fixed self, though we behave as if we do. The result is the performance of a fabricated self. The play is about the manufacturing of self that we all do, the construction of a persona.”

“True West” will be playing in the Vasey Hall theater tonight through Oct. 13. It will be showing at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Villanova Theatre Box Office at x9-7424 and cost $20-$22. There are discounts for seniors, groups and students. For more information, visit www.theatre.villanova.edu.