‘True West’ Extended for One Day at barebones; Allegheny Land Trust Green Spaces (Mon., 9/30/19)

1) American theater classics don’t get more American, or more classic, than Sam Shepard’s True West. The play bundles bizarre humor and hallucinatory levels of meaning into a tale of two brothers fighting over a question: Who has the chops to tell the truth about the wild West? Little brother Austin is a strait-laced, college-prepped screenwriter working on a movie script that he hopes will capture the essence. Big brother Lee, the family’s black sheep, is a disreputable drifter who’s actually lived a lot of the wildness that such a script may depict—so he tries to take artistic control. Tensions between them escalate to a stage where myth, reality, and hilarity mingle madly. True West premiered in San Francisco in 1980. It became a hit when Gary Sinise (as Austin) and John Malkovitch (Lee) played the leads at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, then reprised their roles in New York. Braddock’s barebones productions presents True West with Gabriel King as Austin, Patrick Jordan as Lee, Randy Kovitz as Agent Saul, and Heidi Mueller Smith in a brief but memorable scene near the end. 8 p.m. Last day. At the barebones black box, 1211 Braddock Ave., Braddock. (MV)

Sycamore Island is a Green Space haven that’s river-bound and close to town. (Photo: Lindsay Dill)

2) Speaking of Pittsburgh’s best-kept secrets: Have you heard of Allegheny Land Trust?  The nonprofit maintains “Green Spaces” across the city and into the suburbs and exurbs. There’s a bunch of them, open daily for activities ranging from relaxed walks to biking, birding, and even camping. Wingfield Pines, south of Downtown, is a reclaimed strip-mining area. Audubon Greenway in Sewickley is notably bike-able. Emerald View Park on the slopes of Mt. Washington offers wooded trails with, as the name implies, great views. And Sycamore Island—in the Allegheny River, just a few miles upstream from the Point—is singularly cool. Reachable only by boat, it’s a patch of undisturbed nature where one can camp overnight (get a permit in advance) almost within shouting distance of the city limits. But don’t shout; check it out. The Land Trust has 19 Green Spaces overall. (MV)

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