A.C.T. (San Francisco, CA)
Movie exec Bobby Gould's best buddy has just pitched him a crass action flick that's a surefire blockbuster. But Gould's gorgeous new secretary is pushing a "conscience" film--and she's got after-hours access that could sway his green light. Who's the real showbiz player? With biting comedy and fast-and-furious dialogue, Speed-the-Plow is Hollywood as only David Mamet can deliver.
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The last date listed for Speed-the-Plow was Sunday February 3, 2008 / 2:00pm. (view all dates)
Currently at A.C.T.:
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Not one of Mamets best. The the speed of the dialog and pace of his plays is still to be admired. The set is clever and the cast is great. Their timing is not up to speed, but i am sure by the time you see this production those kinks will be worked out.
I get the feeling I have seen this theme done before. But you can tell this is a personal message from him on the industry he works in. His past film projects and dealing with the studios, come into play for this story theme.
Its a one act - in 90 minutes involving three characters. Hollywood greed and picture making comes in to play.
I like this play, but have seen better from the author.
Vmedia
Berkeley Calif.
Our front-row 2nd balcony seats were excellent (they were somewhat to the side so we were lower than I expected and fairly close to the stage) and the play (in previews) was dynamically performed. Entertaining and biting and very worthwhile. The service charge means that we didn't save much over what the theater might have charged us, however. ($14 vs. $11). Still, a bargain for a first-class theater and production.
This play was a character study of Hollywood go-getters whose personalities, values, issues, etc. were not ones that I care for or respect. It was a study of their interactions for the entire play. I was not pleased.
The Geary Theater, built in 1909, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a San Francisco City Landmark. The theater's neo-classical brick and terra cotta facade on Geary Street opens to a monumental 1,500 seat auditorium trimmed with ornamental stenciling and gilded plaster.
<p>Nothing is black or white in this showbiz satire from the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of such shrewd contemporary classics as Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo.
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Movie exec Bobby Gould's best buddy has just pitched him a crass action flick that's a surefire blockbuster. But Gould's gorgeous new secretary is pushing a "conscience" film—and she's got after-hours access that could sway his green light. Who's the real showbiz player?
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By David Mamet
Directed by Loretta Greco
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David Mamet, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and two-time Oscar nominee, director, essayist, novelist, and poet, has been a force in American theater since 1976. When his first staged plays, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and American Buffalo (later filmed with Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz), both opened in New York that year, Mamet won the OBIE Award for distinguished playwriting and American Buffalo was voted best play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. In 1978, he received the Outer Critics' Circle Award for his contribution to American theater. In 1984, Glengarry Glen Ross won Mamet another New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, four Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize; it was made into a major motion picture in 1992 and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2005. Other plays include Edmond and The Cryptogram (both OBIE Award winners), as well as The Water Engine, The Woods, Reunion, A Life in the Theatre, Lakeboat, Speed-the-Plow, Oleanna, The Old Neighborhood, Boston Marriage, and Romance. His latest play, November, will open on Broadway in January. Mamet's translations and adaptations include Faustus; Pierre Laville's Red River; Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya; and Harley Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance (commissioned and premiered by A.C.T. in 2005). His critically acclaimed debut feature film, House of Games, was selected to close the New York Film Festival in 1987. Other films on which Mamet served as writer and director include Homicide, which opened the 1991 Cannes Film Festival; Oleanna, based on his own play; The Spanish Prisoner, which became one of the most popular independent films of 1998; Heist; The Winslow Boy, adapted from the Terrence Rattigan play; Spartan; and State and Main. Mamet has also won acclaim for numerous screenplays, including The Verdict and Wag the Dog (both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay), and The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Untouchables, We're No Angels, Hoffa, and The Edge. He has also written children's plays and books, numerous volumes of essays (including the recently published Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business), and a book of poems and is the creator and writer of the television series The Unit. Mamet has taught acting at his alma mater, Goddard College, as well as at the University of Chicago, Yale School of Drama and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where, with William H. Macy, he established the Atlantic Theater Company in 1985.</p>
