David
Mamet’s award-winning play ‘American Buffalo’ was expertly brought to life by
director David Thacker, assisted by Oliver Hurst, at the Kings Arm’s Salford,
produced by the theatre’s own Lisa Connor, very much a winning combination of
creatives.
Thacker is very much a versatile professional in the acting world, with experience directing theatre, film and television and is professor of Theatre at the University of Bolton. This level of knowledge and experience showed in this production, making for an extremely impressive piece of pub theatre.
The play commences the morning after a high stakes poker game, Don played by Colin Connor explains the events of the previous evening to his younger friend/gofer Bobby played by Jon O’Neill, while imparting some worldly knowledge and sending Bobby on errands. Bobby is especially tasked to keep an eye on a customer who recently purchased a coin of high value in Don’s shop. Don is planning on breaking into the customer's house to retrieve the coin with the help of Bobby but is soon joined by poker buddy Teach played by Dave MacCreedy, who convinces Don to drop Bobby from his plans for being untrustworthy and take him instead. Tensions mount for Don as he drops a disappointed Bobby from his plans and an explosive Teach comes armed with a gun to his dislike and the situation only gets more chaotic as the play reaches its violent climatic end.
Mamet’s text doesn’t shy away from using slurs and strong curse words and each actor delivered the text with great Midwestern accents, the play came to life and the energy of their vocal performances gave a real rhythm to the piece that felt almost Shakespearian in its patter. All three actors gave outstanding performances, Don’s leading presence as the owner of the shop and organiser of the break in, Bobby’s naïve demeanour yet manipulative evasiveness to questioning, and Teach’s intense and explosive personality made for a clash of personalities that brought great drama, equally well portrayed by the whole cast. The physical action at the end of the play is well choreographed by Callum Arnott, a chase in a small busy space and Bobby is hurt by Teach. The movement is delivered with a harsh effective realistic blow of a man acting intentionally to cause harm without giving a chance for defence. Brutal.
Act one sees Don clearing away rubbish and items from the before mentioned poker game. The poker table sits centre stage, and the audience are in the round amongst piles of rubbish from the junk shop. Loyalties of friends are questioned, the subject of the lost coins value is raised, and arguments erupt around the poker table, as though the game hasn’t entirely stopped, the characters feigning innocence or giving steely determined gazes to one another. These performances we’re emphasised by Gareth Jones’ lighting design. A circular lighting rig above the stage lit the actors faces in a warm wash with a blue highlight, reflecting the plays tragic tone.
This was the most impressive production I have seen at the King’s Arms, it’s running until the 24th of March, if you can get tickets, I urge you to go see it. You will not be disappointed by the professionalism of this production, the wonderfully detailed performances by the actors and the well thought out direction from Thacker make this one not to be missed!
Reviewer - Kerry Ely
on - 14.3.23
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