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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I keep trying to convince myself that I like Mamet and... I just don’t.
"What I'm saying, what is our life? It's looking forward or it's looking back. And that's our life. That's it."
The phrase "tour de force" is so overused and cheesy, yet I can't think of any other way to describe this stunning, frantic-paced play. The dialogue is masterful, as if Mamet had set a tape-recorder in a room to capture the diction of fast-talking, stressed-out salesmen. It is the most realistic conversational dialogue I've ever read in any form. I've seen the film multiple times, so I knew the characters and plot. But the play differs from the film in a few ways. It's shorter and tighter. Alec Baldwin's character doesn't exist in the play (nor is he needed). Reading the play, I felt a rhythm with the dialogue that was a little more rapid than in the film, even though I think the differing rhythms work in both versions.
This is a play that epitomizes and satirizes the 80s excess that lead to an obsession with real estate and shady financial dealings -- the impact of which is still being felt today. The slick, amoral, slang-talking salesmen are iconic American characters who have their roots in the snake-oil con-men of the 19th century. They are engaged in the long American tradition of screwing over people (mostly immigrants and the elderly, but also each other) on bogus land deals. This is easily one of the definitive American plays of the second-half of the 20th century. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This is a play that epitomizes and satirizes the 80s excess that lead to an obsession with real estate and shady financial dealings -- the impact of which is still being felt today. The slick, amoral, slang-talking salesmen are iconic American characters who have their roots in the snake-oil con-men of the 19th century. They are engaged in the long American tradition of screwing over people (mostly immigrants and the elderly, but also each other) on bogus land deals. This is easily one of the definitive American plays of the second-half of the 20th century. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love this play. I first read it in an Introduction to Theatre class that I took in university where I first saw it performed. I've since watched the movie and seen another production. It's a play that I'm always willing to go see. A local theatre company did an all-female production of it once which I really wanted to see but unfortunately missed. Mamet at his best.
"What I'm saying, what is your life? (Pause.) It's looking forward or it's looking back. And that's our life. That's it. Where is the moment? (Pause.) And what is it that we're afraid of? Loss. What else? (Pause.) The bank closes. We get sick, my wife died on a plane, the stock market collapsed ... the house burnt down ... what of these happen ...? None of 'em. We worry anyway. What does this mean? I'm not secure. How can I be secure? (Pause.) Through amassing wealth beyond measure? No. And what's beyond all measure? That's a sickness. That's a trap. There is no measure. Only greed. How can we act?" (Roma, Act One, Scene Three)
Rich white men fighting in the workplace? Yeah, not interested.
Never in a million year would I have picked this up if it wasn’t for school. And let me tell you I expected this to be pretty boring, but I am so pleasantly surprised you how much I liked it.
Maybe you need to see it to get it, but I found it super hard to follow just reading it. The play is super masculine and the so-called 'Mametspeak' is really aggressive, with the constant pauses and gaps making it confusing. There were a few interactions that gripped me, but overall it took a lot of reflecting to get my head around it
