Curtain Call

By T.E.K.

A LIFE IN THE THEATER by David Mamet

David Mamet is the chameleon of young U.S. playwrights. Had he used diverse aliases, few playgoers could have guessed that plays as different in theme and texture as Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, American Buffalo and, now, A Life in the Theater had all been written by the same man.

The constant that knits them together is Mamet's ear, which is a precision instrument. He recognizes the shaping force of language--how it is used as a weapon or a shield depending on what a character wishes to convey or conceal.

The two characters who dominate A Life in the Theater are actors. John (Peter Evans) is young, zestful, ambitious, a Hamlet-to-be in his mind's eye. Robert (Ellis Rabb) is well into middle age, disenchanted, edgy about criticism, a Polonius of worldly wisdom who can carry a scene but has long since dropped any hope of ruling the stage. They play out scenes before imaginary audiences. With marvelous mimicry, Mamet conjures up parodistic echoes of past playwriting titans together with melodramatic fustian.

Shuttling between illusion and reality, the pair is never offstage. Perhaps no actor ever is. John and Robert display the vanities and insecurities of their craft, the exhilaration and the stomach-pit dread, the droll nuances of paying insults in the guise of compliments. The play may perhaps come too close to shoptalk.

Ellis Rabb can tango with words and he is a sly devil at milking an audience dry of laughter. Peter Evans' John rolls his lines like dice in a crap game he dare not lose. For Mamet, this play is a five-finger exercise, but so nimble that he often seems to be using ten. -- T.E.K.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.