Shane

How do you put a Western on stage? As a lover of the genre, I’ve kicked that question around for years, so I issued the challenge to my friend and longtime collaborator, playwright Karen Zacarías. And then one day she called me with an answer. “I want to do Shane,” she said, “but it can’t be the movie on stage; it’s got to be the way I always imagined it.”

As a Latina playwright who read the Jack Shaefer novel at a formative age, Karen brings a culturally authentic perspective to this version of Shane. Historically, we know that the West was filled with Mexican farmers, Black cowboys, and Indigenous nations. Hollywood whitewashed the genre, presenting those communities as stereotypes, if indeed they appeared at all. Karen’s script sets out to change that by interrogating and celebrating the genre at the same time. It honors the cultural authenticity of the West, where a diverse population of cowboys, frontiersmen, and homesteaders lived and thrived. And it gives the story new life by including Black, Brown, and Indigenous perspectives.

I describe Shane as a domestic Western. It has all the primary themes and tropes of the genre—a moral homesteader, a greedy villain, a mysterious anti-hero, a barroom brawl, a final shootout—and yet it focuses keenly on one family unit. The characters are intriguing and complex. Joe Starrett and Shane are exemplary men yet flawed in their own ways. Young Bobby idolizes them both, and Marian is caught in the middle. The play’s central question is this: what makes a good man? It’s a question that still resonates today.

Re-examining a beloved genre carries risks and rewards. Karen has done a monumental amount of research. She has studied the history of Black cowboys and Mexican Americans throughout the 19th century. She has worked with Native artists and consultants to give voice to an indigenous perspective in the story. She has studied the Homestead Act and its influence on ranching and land development. Will we get it all right? Probably not—how is that even possible? But I stand in awe of this playwright’s big heart, her talent, and her commitment to tell this story in a truly authentic way.

—Blake Robison