BILL  BRAY looks at the sour taste of the American Dream in an exciting play by David Mamet

"You're Fired!"  has  become a familiar phrase in recent years on our  TV screens with the success of The Apprentice. American playwright David Mamet introduced it in theatre some years before with the bear-pit of a real estate office in the mid-west in Glengarry Glen Ross.   We have recently heard of the collapse of "the sub prime market";  well, this was an advance taste,  from back in 1983,    of the deceit and criminal behaviour of home-selling.

Mamet was born  near Chicago in 1947. He took a degree at Goddard College in Vermont and was drawn to Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where he tried acting and directing.  In between times he had a number of jobs including, briefly, selling real estate.  He moved to New York where he found success writing for the theatre. His plays reveal the economic exploitation which he feels is rooted in the nature of American society. As he wrote in 1981:   "The American Dream has gone bad...The idea was that if you got out there, as long as there was something to exploit - whether it was the wild west, the Negroes, the Irish, the Chinese in California, the gold fields or the timberland - one had the capacity to get rich. The capitalistic dream of wealth turns people against each other."

Consistent with these views, Mamet sees his function as a playwright as a moral one in a morally bankrupt time. But although Mamet might describe one of his plays as "a strict lesson in ethics", it would be a mistake to view his work as political or "engaged". For him, the traditional purpose of theatre is to celebrate, which is to say it comes closer to the job of the church than of the publishing house. His plays paradoxically allow us to celebrate basic truths about ourselves and our society more adequately than if their moral message were explicitly conveyed through didactic speeches.

Glengarry Glen Ross was written in 1983, dedicated to Harold Pinter, and first performed in the National's Cottesloe Theatre, from where it transferred for a longer London run, and then to Broadway where it  won the 1984 Pulitzer prize for best American play. Highly regarded as an important play in the tradition of Death of a Salesman, unlike Arthur Miller's great play, it is not a tragedy. Mamet insists Glengarry is  "a gang comedy in the tradition of The Front Page  and the detective story" .  It has become even more relevant in 2011 when the outcome of the evil stupidity of the American Dream has destroyed the lives and prospects of so many in America and in the wider world through the collapse of the sub-prime property market.  The play is a highly articulate expression of the materialistic  values of American  society  and,  by  extension,   of  the  values  we  in  the  UK   have espoused  with competitive TV shows like The Apprentice. In Mamet's play the prizes are a Cadillac and  a set of steak knives,  with "You're fired!" as the reward for any loser. 

The language of the play is influenced by Mamet's mentor, Harold Pinter.  Fragmented speech and obliquities are used as part of a game of manipulation and power.  Be warned:  profanity abounds in this cut-throat Glengarry world.  It would be unrealistic if it were otherwise.

PETER   GRIFFIN,  director,  describes this play from the era of Thatcher and Reagan

The story of four desperate real estate salesmen prepared to engage in any number of unethical, illegal acts, from lies and flattery to bribery, threats and intimidation in order to sell ‘un-sellable' real estate to unwilling prospective buyers.  Then, from the head office downtown, arrive the Glengarry "leads", lists of names and phone numbers of potential clients for an expensive property development. If only they could get their hands on them...!

David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize winning play of the American Dream gone wrong was first shown to the world in London. It gained critical acclaim and was heralded a triumph in ensemble acting. It went on to win the 1983 Olivier Award for Best New Play. The Broadway production followed in March, 1984 and was again bestowed very high praise and garnered, not only the Pulitzer Prize for Drama but also the New York Drama Critics' Award for Best American Play. 

My affiliation with the play first came about when I discovered the film one day whilst browsing through my local video shop way back in the early 1990's. A stellar cast, boasting the likes of Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin and Ed Harris, were gathered together to produce a mesmerising piece of drama. Jack Lemmon later went on to state that his role of Shelley Levene was one of the most satisfying he had ever played. Alec Baldwin's role as a motivator sent from head office to rouse the salesmen (in a very aggressive, abusive and demoralising manner) was specially written for him by Mamet as it does not appear in the stage play.

I can't begin to tell you how much I like this play!  One of the main reasons I like it is that it depends so much on the characters. You could do it on a completely bare stage if you wanted and the drama would still come through because the characters are so strong. True, they may not be likeable, on the contrary, most of them are ruthless, back-stabbing, conniving, manipulative and shallow but to me, that only makes them more interesting to watch and direct.

Another reason for its appeal is the rhythm of the dialogue that conveys the naturalistic pattern of speech. Mamet has written dialogue that reflects reality: interruptions; broken sentences; half sentences and stutters all combine to make these characters come to life in a very believable way.

I must emphasise that this is an adult play. There is an awful lot of swearing in it. However, the swearing is justified. This is a character driven play and the characters would act this way and say these things. It is the result of their desperation and the environment that they work in. On the other hand, there is much humour in the dialogue with many laugh-out-loud moments throughout the play.

I have been very lucky to gather around me a very talented cast. There's Gerald Bishop, who you will all remember playing the "bad cop" Tupolski in The Pillowman. Next is David Webster who has played many memorable characters over the years, Two that stand out are the "good cop", Ariel in The Pillowman and the killer, Ralph in Frozen. Then there's Paul Harris who gave such a mesmerising performance as Michal in The Pillowman. Following on is Scott Shearer who was recently seen flexing his vocal chords as Chuck Baxter in Promises Promises and before that, flexing his piano fingers as Cosme McMoon in Glorious! David Oatley is next who was last seen being rather mean as Harpagon in The Miser. Then there's Mike Weaver who directed the very enjoyable Time and the Conways. He was last seen on stage in 2008 when he played the part of John Watherstone in The Winslow Boy. Last but certainly not least is Roger Gollop who was in The Miser as La Fleche and, before that, as Colonel Blagden in Come On, Jeeves. 

I am so glad that I have the chance to bring this fantastic play to the Geoffrey Whitworth stage.