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Tracey Letts (John Williamson) and Mike Nussbaum (Shelly Levene) in Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Amy Morton. Photo: Michael Brosilow
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Glengarry Glen Ross
by David Mamet
directed by Amy Morton
November 23, 2001 - January 27, 2002
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
1650 North Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614
Box office: (312) 335-1650
http://www.steppenwolf.org
Steppenwolf Theatre Company's revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross is simple, and intense, and elegant. The basis of this production is just the 1984 Pulitzer prize winning play. The script has not been updated from the 1980's. The production is not derived from the 1984 world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, starring Joe Mantegna, or James Foley's 1992 film featuring such scene-chewing actors as Pacino, Lemmon, and Arkin -- a film so revered that it has its own website [Unofficial Glengarry Glen Ross site: http://www.uggr.com]. This revival of Glengarry Glen Ross is simply a performance of Mamet's two-act, seven-character play about the real estate business in Chicago. Therein lies its intensity, and its elegance.
In focusing on the playscript, without reference to theatrical or cinematic antecedents, the Steppenwolf ensemble, under the direction of Amy Morton, really revives this play, which has popularly become known as a story of foul-mouthed, morally corrupt real estate hucksters plying their trade. Mamet believes that unlike mass entertainment, which seduces and flatters the audience about the validity of their views, the "job of the artist . . . is to say, wait a second, to the contrary, everything that we have thought is wrong. Let's reexamine it." (Richard Covington, "Interview: David Mamet." Salon, 1997, p. 5.) In Glengarry Glen Ross, which Mamet terms a "gang comedy," the dramatist causes us to see the real estate salesmen as real men, not profane bellowing caricatures. For Mamet all drama presents "the quest of the protagonist[s] for a single goal." (Arthur Holmberg, "It's Never Easy to Go Back -- Interview of David Mamet" 1997.) In Glengarry Glen Ross, as in all comedy, that quest is for survival within their society. For the protagonists in this play, their gang, their society is the fraternity of real estate salesmen.
The plot of Glengarry Glen Ross is exquisitely intense: two acts, four scenes, two settings, less than two hours performance time. In the world of Chicago real estate salesmen of the 1980s, survival is predicated on leads to prospective buyers. The three scenes in Act One, set in a dilapidated Chinese restaurant, focus on the relationship of the leads to the survival of the four salesmen; in Act Two, the leads have been stolen from the sales office, but the salesmen survive. The play opens with the plaintive, almost pitiful, plea of the most veteran salesman, Shelly Levene (Mike Nussbaum), to the officious younger manager, John Williamson (Tracy Letts) for better leads, which he believes will get him past his dry spell. His request is coldly rejected. Shelly 'The Machine' Levene is the star salesman of the past; he values reputation, fraternity, and loyalty for past service. But Williamson values only the bottom cash line and Shelly is no longer productive. Levene's old ethical code is no longer effective. In Scene 2, two luckless salesmen also seek better leads, but outside of the 'gang's' now ineffective code of conduct. Dave Moss (Matt DeCaro) enlists George Aaronow (Alan Wilder) in a scheme to steal the leads and trash the sales office so they will not be suspected. In Scene 3, Richard Roman (David Pasquesi), the youngest and most successful salesman and Shelly Levene's protege, works outside of the old system -- he creates his own lead and sells real estate to the timid James Lingk (Peter Burns), a fellow customer at the restaurant. In Act 2, in the trashed storefront sales office, as a police detective (Gary Brichetto) tries to investigate the burglary of the leads, the four salesmen survive by embracing the ethic of the manager -- materialism and a Cadillac become their goals too, their only goals.
In Glengarry Glen Ross, the protagonists' quest is successful -- they are all still real estate salesmen, but under new management. Under Amy Morton's direction, this comedy is performed with an energy that delineates its essence. Derek McLane's set design masterfully presents a vision of the moribund world of these real estate salesmen: where bonds are formed and deals closed in a dreary Chinese restaurant with red leather duct-tape-patched seats; and where victories are recounted and reputations made in an office with imitation wood paneling and old metal desks arranged in a maze. Pat Collins' lighting design provides the perfect level of illumination for the two sets: unromantic dinginess in the restaurant and stark bleakness in the trashed office.
On the Steppenwolf stage, the seven male actors enter and exit, scenes move, and the set changes with the energetic pace of comedy. The actors also portray their characters with the same energy and intensity. Nan Cibula-Jenkins' costume design provides perfect individual suits, ties and shoes for each character. But the characters really come alive through the characteristic Mamet dialogue, the so-called Mametspeak. In Glengarry Glen Ross, the rhythms and cadences of tough male macho speech, with the "f-word" being used over 400 times, seems to be a recording of the vernacular. Instead, Mamet's dialogue is precisely crafted to the meaning of this play. Ironically, Mamet believes that there is artifice in all speech, even when it seems most spontaneous or inarticulate: "Nobody ever says exactly what they mean. People only speak to bring about a result. . . . They say what they understand to be best calculated to get what they want, which is a very different thing. . . . That's why people speak." (John Koch, "The Interview: David Mamet," Boston Globe, 11/9/97.) So, the challenge to the actors in Glengarry Glen Ross is that they not seem to 'act,' that they deliver Mamet's richly textured lines with spontaneity and intensity -- and without analysis or reference to performances in other Mamet plays or films. The Steppenwolf actors have met this challenge with elegance.
Amy Morton has melded the seven Glengarry Glen Ross actors into a true ensemble. There are no bravura performances that detract from the meaning of this gang comedy in which the loss of fraternity and loyalty is the essence of the plot. Each performance is simply superb; each character is convincingly genuine. Yet the elegance of this production is in the balance of the performances. The pathos and desperation of Mike Nussbaum's Shelly Levene is the perfect foil for David Pasquesi's charismatic and amoral Richard Roman. The swaggering profanity of Matt DeCaro's Dave Moss complements Alan Wilder's inarticulate hapless George Aaronow as well as Peter Burns' victimized James Lingk; Tracy Letts' John Williamson is as officious and authoritarian as Gary Brichetto's Detective Boylen.
--Sandra Marie Lee
Glengarry Glen Ross. Revival of David Mamet's play directed by Amy Morton. Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650. Through January 27: Tuesdays, 7:30 PM; Wednesdays, 2 and 7:30 PM; Thursdays-Fridays, 7:30 PM; Saturdays, 3 and 7:30 PM; Sundays, 3 PM; Wednesday, December 19 and 26, 7:30 PM only; Sunday, December 16, 23, and 30, and January 6, 3 and 7:30 PM; no shows Tuesday, December 25 and January 1. $40-$50.
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