Word: mamet
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Acting is almost beside the point in a piece this sweeping, which is just as well -- the players, mostly members of the Atlantic Theater formed by David Mamet, are only adequate. The play's the thing, and this one is spellbinding...
Acting is almost beside the point in a piece this sweeping, which is just as well -- the players, mostly members of the Atlantic Theater formed by David Mamet, are only adequate. The play's the thing, and this one is spellbinding...
...Just spit it out and you can't go wrong. But this cast seems unable to do just that. They're slow on their cues and in their delivery. Attempting to read meaning into lines that don't have any is a trying exercise for cast and audience alike. Mamet's quips must rattle out like an artillery barrage, not like languid dinnertime conversation...
...Mamet writes his characters larger than life. Unless an actor flings himself into his role whole-heartedly, the portrayal becomes self-conscious. Aaron Zelman succumbs to this danger in his portrayal of Gould. As the play progresses, he adapts his style admirably to the ups and downs of his character's troubled psyche, playing the sobered, morning-after Gould with dull compassion. But, especially in Gould's brasher incarnations, Zelman never seems quite convinced that he can carry off such an outrageous script. He knows that we know that he's acting...
Jeremy Blumenthal, on the other hand, endows the craven, envy-gnawed Charlie Fox with a peculiar loathesomeness. He makes the transition from bitter but unabated brown-nosing to livid insubordination flawlessly. His cloying gestures and demeanor would constitute hamming in any other show, but fit the Mamet bill perfectly...