Celebrated American contemporary playwright David Mamet's seminal 'Glengarry, Glen Ross', although somehow rather dated now, is still able to pack a fair punch when given rein to do so.
For my money, Manchester's grandiose and large-capacity theatre was perhaps not the wisest choice of venue for this touring production to have chosen. I find the play, which I have seen several times before, works better when in a more intimiate space. The whole becomes edgier and you are automatically more involved in these characters' quasi-nefarious doings. Staged as it was between the Opera House's plush velvet curtains and gilted prosc. arch frame, we were distanced and alienated, meaning the actors had to work all that much harder to bring us on side.
There was much to admire from the seven actors in this evening's production. Their individual characters excellently defined and even though this play is somewhat infamous for the amount of shouting and profanity throughout, none of it seemed gratuitous or out of place in this production, and we really were able to relate to and sympathise with some of the characters.
The story follows the exploits of four property salesmen and thier boss in a Real Estate office in Chicago in the 1980s. Since Mamet himself worked for a time in such an environment, these characters have been drawn from his real-life experiences; and so even if we think that their work ethics and the lengths they go to to make closure on a sale are a little exaggerated or extreme, we can believe that they are cerainly based on reality. The play's title coming from two Real Estate developments - Glengarry, a modern, highly desirable Grade A sell, whilst Glen Ross, was something similar a year or do ago, and has now lost its glow and desirability. A nice title which mirrors nicely the four salesmen's own ages, achievements and aspirations.
Mark Benton played the older, and perhaps a little 'waashed-up' salesman Shelley Levine with grit and determination right from the start; and although the play concerns itself with only a part of two consecutive days, we get a lovely insight into Levine's life of slogging and pitching for sales. We understood completely that in his prime he was 'hot property' (if you'll excuse the terrible pun), but now he is past his sell-by date. Nigel Harman's smooth Ricky Roma, looking suave and sophisticated (as far as a real estate saleaman is able) remained for the most part cool, even in the face of losing a large sale and being humiliated in front of his client. Denis Conway and Wil Johnson provided excellent support and lovely contrasting characteristions (one running hot and the other running cold) making the four salesmen, when they were onstage, pull and push in different directions building up tensions between them and making it interesting for the audience.
The dialogue for the most part needs to be kept moving and at quite a decent speed, but in the first act (set in a Chinese Restaurant) this sadly was not the case. What we were presented with were three seperate duologues - each one performed superbly (although the third one did dip somewhat in energy levels) but it was the time wasted between each of these which was very pedestrian. Incongruous sound effects including train noises were played between whilst the cast sauntered out of and in to position. And despite them being in a Chinese restaurant there was never any sign of any other punters, waitress or staff, food or even menus! Although the set design for both the restaurant and the second act's office were absolutely brilliant and the attention to detail was quite unerring. (Chiara Stephenson). I don't think I have ever before seen an office set which even had a ceiling, and such a realistic one at that!
On the whole Sam Yates' direction was high energy and punchy, but the second act was far superior in terms of dynamic and rhythm as well as being far less static. Perhaps some of that can be the 'fault' with the way the play is written, but there was a distinct lack of business and busy-ness in the first act, again making the actors work all the more hard to keep our attention. Perhaps that is why when it came to the third vignette, it lacked energy and pace, since they were unable to top what had been done before, and there was nothing else on stage to help them or us.
Verdict: Generally superbly acted, with some nice 'anti-chemistry' between sales rivals, sensible directing, and a well-appointed set for the actors to work in, adding to the realism.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 25/3/19
No comments:
Post a Comment