GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS

presented by M&D Productions and The Resort Players of Mount Washington Valley

_________________
Michael J. Curtiss

Never mind that David Mamet won both the Tony and the Pulitzer for GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. That’s nice, but given the rich content and promise within the body of this particular play, what’s more important is this: Mamet is a pretty good playwright, but he’s also the world’s best thief, magician, and philanthropist. As becomes evident fairly soon in GLENGARRY, you discover that Mamet steals what you know, performs his peculiar alchemy on it, and then he makes you take it back. And you love him for it.

GLENGARRY itself speaks to any number of themes, among them the definition of ethics, morality, and how we define or re-define them, given any number of situations. If nothing else, this play demonstrates how malleable our own moral codes can become; pushed to the wall and staring down personal ruin, are our ethics and morals the same ones we cherish when we’re riding the crest of success?

GLENGARRY is also a uniquely male play- no, make that an AMERICAN male play- because it especially illustrates the unique culture of men, and the dynamics that arise when men are set against one another and forced to coexist in the same microcosm while they compete.

It speaks to the social conditioning that men seemed cursed to pass from father to son- that accepted belief that success in career equals success as a man, above all else, and sometimes to the exception of all else- home, family, and ultimately, how a man counts his own worth. It speaks to that which motivates the men caught up in this complex social machine, this masculine belief system: fear. Fear that the wolf is always- AWAYS- at the door. Fear that yes, you must, at some point in your life, step up and grapple with that wolf, and that there’s the very good chance that you might not emerge the victor. Your particular wolf might be not “measuring up” as a man, by not performing at all times with that killer instinct, closing that deal, earning that commission. Or maybe it’s the wolf that manifests itself in the man behind you who’s younger, stronger, faster, better, smarter- someone who’ll eventually catch up to you- and eat you. Or worse: the wolf that pulls past you in second gear, laughs as you choke on its dust, and takes that which you thought was yours.

GLENGARRY essentially opens in this vulpine manner, with the alpha male marking his territory, in the form of verbally dominating his underlings- a rag-tag pack of sub-par real estate salesmen under his heavy hand- and using fear tactics to get them to realize his vision for them. He proposes a sales contest: top salesman gets a Cadillac, second best, a set of steak knives. Everyone else gets fired. This gambit works like a charm; these men, each of whom is already grappling with their own set of demons, are propelled into the arena and pitted against one another with no regard for skill, age, or seniority. All bets are off; each man is tasked to being in the most revenue by any means he can, and to the winner go the spoils. That the process of getting to top earner might involve a certain bending of moral codes and the likelihood of an ethical bloodbath becomes almost incidental to these men, in their rush to prove not only their worth to their boss, but to themselves and to one another. Thus is born the type of tale which Mamet is so masterful at telling, and which M&D Productions and the Resort Players have managed to translate so well to their stage.

Dennis O’Neil’s direction in each act is of stark contrast. In Act One, he blocks the characters in static settings. All of the men, with the exception of the ruthlessly dynamic Blake, are either seated or firmly rooted in place. This works well in that the lack of movement speaks to the men’s collective despair at either stagnating in their profession, or, through a set of rules too draconian to even comprehend, are prevented from moving forward and achieving even the smallest measure of success.

Act Two is far more kinetic; all of the men seem to constantly be propelled from one place to another, hurtling from point to point like so many meteorites, as they struggle with the consequences of the actions of one of their own. Again, this works to the benefit of the play’s energy, and it keeps the audience engaged.

GLENGARRY is very much an ensemble piece, and O’Neil understands this. He’s chosen a cast that listens not only to one another, but also to the nervy rhythms of speech and movement that are a Mamet trademark. These actors understand that rhythm, have integrated it into their relationships and reactions to one another and to the text, and they use it to keep the show driving forward. All in all, It’s a beautiful piece of stage work by the director and his extremely able cast.

Director Dennis O’Neil pulls double-duty as the crass success story Blake. The audience understands all that’s necessary to know about Blake in roughly the first five minutes of the play’s opening, thanks to how O’Neil presents the character. Tom O’Reilly gives us office manager Williamson in adept, nebbishy sketches, manifesting a man who’s weak and conflicted, unsure of where his loyalties should lie, yet never appearing marginalized in relation to the other actors. Ken Martin’s Levene is at turns craven and confident, and Martin is a pro at illustrating the panoply of emotions between those two extremes. Scott Katrycz is a wonderfully brash yet somehow vulnerable Moss; a boy wonder whose actual wonder seems to have been denied him, and whose parade seems destined to pass him by. Tom Rebmann shines as the weary Aaronow; he plays the character for all of its downtrodden appeal, as a man staring into the unblinking face of failure. Kevin O’Neil pulls no punches as the supercharged Roma, the man who seems to know what he wants yet is as quickly undone by his own ambitions as he is elevated by them. Dan Phelps is the perfect whipped suburban husband Lingk, and Dan Tetreault makes Act Two crackle as the authoritarian detective Bayden. Each actor embodies the archetype. However, they don’t use the concept of archetype as a crutch to do their work for them, but more as a building block to flesh out truly compelling characters, to a man.

Mark DeLancey has rendered an empathic set design that supports GLENGARRY’s themes and its subtext; in Act One, the men are crowded into a tatty Asian restaurant, seemingly immobilized within the confines of Oriental kitsch. In Act Two, they bounce around in a shabby, vandalized office that’s every bit as drab and hopeless as the lives these men seemed destined to lead. Sound, lights, and costumes were well executed and faithful to the show’s premise; all of the production elements combined together smoothly to enhance this quality production.

Outside of that which has already been touched upon, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is also a play written in the language of men who are under great pressure to perform, not merely as earners, but AS men. As a consequence, the language reflects the settings, and while it is coarse and disturbing, it is also honest; this is how men speak. It’s also an unsettlingly accurate bellwether of the culture of men, and the lengths to which men sometimes feel compelled to go to define themselves- not merely as men, but as the men they wish themselves to be. That this particular production not only stages Mamet’s work admirably, but also does not shirk at bringing all of these themes out for us to examine, is only to their credit.

This play should be seen, not merely because it’s done extremely well- it is- but because it’s also a rather stern modern fable that illustrates the burdens under which men labor.

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS also teaches us, in its gritty manner, that being a man is hard work even at the best of times, and that, regardless of how good you are in your chosen profession, there’s never a guarantee of a reward at the end. Bleak this premise may be, but, like all of Mamet’s work, it’s also honest in how it presents the realities that humans must confront as they move through the complex patterns of their lives. In this, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is an excellent example of uniquely American theatre, and the collaborative effort of M&D Productions and the Resort Players

in bringing this work to the stage is well worth the price of admission.