Kathianne
08-14-2019, 07:55 PM
A new David Mamet play that opened in London. Some UK reviews are ok, but the American reviews are knocking it in toto.
Drummond or Noir, if you are going into the city you might pick up tickets and give us a review. It sounds hilarious in a dark sort of way. Seems to be a bit lippy regarding all the play up to an obvious pig, because he gave to the right charites/causes, and politicians-Eh Hillary?
I've never attended a Mamet play I didn't enjoy.
https://nystagereview.com/2019/07/01/from-london-mamet-and-malkovich-reap-bitter-wheat-from-harvey-weinstein/
JULY 1, 2019 5:30 PM
FROM LONDON: MAMET AND MALKOVICH REAP BITTER WHEAT FROM HARVEY WEINSTEIN
By Steven Suskin
★★ Bitter Wheat
There seems to be an unfortunate career pattern for ground-breaking playwrights, at least in our American sphere. Write one or two arguably or inarguably great plays that shake up the field early on, and likely as not you wind up with a subsequent string of plays that fail even while your early hits are continually lauded and successfully revived.
This was the trajectory of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee. All experienced difficulty arranging productions of new work despite their celebrity; when they did, they were likely to be savaged by audiences and critics alike. Of the three, only Albee reclaimed the magic in his final years.
David Mamet doesn’t quite belong in the same class as the above-mentioned dramatists, but there are similarities. Sexual Perversity in Chicago caused audiences to take note; American Buffalo brought the playwright to Broadway, albeit briefly; and the savage and blasphemous Glengarry Glen Ross was so brilliantly written that audiences suddenly flocked to see the New Mamet Play. His latest Broadway offerings have been the little-appreciated November and Race, followed by the roundly trounced The Anarchist and China Doll. Even Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf combined couldn’t make much of November. Still active as he enters his seventies, will Mamet be able to “pull an Albee”? Perhaps with his latest play, Bitter Wheat?
Not this time. The playwright has set himself a most difficult task—writing a comedy about a current-day front-page sexual abuse scandal—and is more or less done in by the obstacles. But let us first point out that the writing is good, with many passages of top-notch Mametian discourse. This was decidedly not in evidence in his recent plays, which meandered along purposelessly. Watching Bitter Wheat at the Garrick, the first surprise is that the playwright has rediscovered Mamet-speak, with razor-sharp, scabrously vicious wit flung from the mouth of babes.
Or, rather, the mouth of John Malkovich. For it is John Malkovich, flinging insults and milking pity from within a comically unwieldy fat suit, who has a personal field day up there. We rarely see this unique actor on stage anymore, which is a pity. Bitter Wheat might not be a success, but Malkovich sure is.
Mamet has concocted a character named Barney Fein, a bloated, vicious, dishonorable, blasphemous, wildly successful Hollywood producer based in New York. In the first scene of this three-scene play, we meet this buffoonish Barney, who is most obviously a parody of the real-life Harvey Weinstein. He behaves badly, cynically setting a trap for an unsuspecting butterfly. In the final scene, we again see Barney—just out of jail—comically wheeling and dealing and bribing his way out of his predicament (with, let it be added, the cooperation of said butterfly).
...
Drummond or Noir, if you are going into the city you might pick up tickets and give us a review. It sounds hilarious in a dark sort of way. Seems to be a bit lippy regarding all the play up to an obvious pig, because he gave to the right charites/causes, and politicians-Eh Hillary?
I've never attended a Mamet play I didn't enjoy.
https://nystagereview.com/2019/07/01/from-london-mamet-and-malkovich-reap-bitter-wheat-from-harvey-weinstein/
JULY 1, 2019 5:30 PM
FROM LONDON: MAMET AND MALKOVICH REAP BITTER WHEAT FROM HARVEY WEINSTEIN
By Steven Suskin
★★ Bitter Wheat
There seems to be an unfortunate career pattern for ground-breaking playwrights, at least in our American sphere. Write one or two arguably or inarguably great plays that shake up the field early on, and likely as not you wind up with a subsequent string of plays that fail even while your early hits are continually lauded and successfully revived.
This was the trajectory of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee. All experienced difficulty arranging productions of new work despite their celebrity; when they did, they were likely to be savaged by audiences and critics alike. Of the three, only Albee reclaimed the magic in his final years.
David Mamet doesn’t quite belong in the same class as the above-mentioned dramatists, but there are similarities. Sexual Perversity in Chicago caused audiences to take note; American Buffalo brought the playwright to Broadway, albeit briefly; and the savage and blasphemous Glengarry Glen Ross was so brilliantly written that audiences suddenly flocked to see the New Mamet Play. His latest Broadway offerings have been the little-appreciated November and Race, followed by the roundly trounced The Anarchist and China Doll. Even Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf combined couldn’t make much of November. Still active as he enters his seventies, will Mamet be able to “pull an Albee”? Perhaps with his latest play, Bitter Wheat?
Not this time. The playwright has set himself a most difficult task—writing a comedy about a current-day front-page sexual abuse scandal—and is more or less done in by the obstacles. But let us first point out that the writing is good, with many passages of top-notch Mametian discourse. This was decidedly not in evidence in his recent plays, which meandered along purposelessly. Watching Bitter Wheat at the Garrick, the first surprise is that the playwright has rediscovered Mamet-speak, with razor-sharp, scabrously vicious wit flung from the mouth of babes.
Or, rather, the mouth of John Malkovich. For it is John Malkovich, flinging insults and milking pity from within a comically unwieldy fat suit, who has a personal field day up there. We rarely see this unique actor on stage anymore, which is a pity. Bitter Wheat might not be a success, but Malkovich sure is.
Mamet has concocted a character named Barney Fein, a bloated, vicious, dishonorable, blasphemous, wildly successful Hollywood producer based in New York. In the first scene of this three-scene play, we meet this buffoonish Barney, who is most obviously a parody of the real-life Harvey Weinstein. He behaves badly, cynically setting a trap for an unsuspecting butterfly. In the final scene, we again see Barney—just out of jail—comically wheeling and dealing and bribing his way out of his predicament (with, let it be added, the cooperation of said butterfly).
...