Reviews 2002
Reviews 2002
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by David Mamet, directed by Jeff Seymour
C.O.R.E., Jane Mallet Theatre, Toronto
May 3-17, 2002
"The Prison or the Bridge"
David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" from 1988 is a wicked satire of greed and amorality in the Hollywood film industry. It's a lighter work than "Glengarry Glen Ross" but like it focusses on power games among men in business. This low-budget production which has already played in Vancouver is, though flawed, still highly entertaining.
Robert Gould has just been promoted to Head of Production at a film studio giving him the option of greenlighting one project of his choice per year with a budget over ten million dollars. His friend Charlie Fox, lower on the corporate totem pole, comes to him with a gift project. The star Douglas Brown, the current flavour of the month, has come to Charlie to say he wants to do a prison flick with their studio. Out of loyalty Charlie brings the project to Robert and they dream of the fame and fortune they'll accrue as producers of a sure hit. A sense of power so goes to Charlie's head that he bets Robert $500.00 that Robert can bed his new temp Karen that night. As a ploy Robert gives Karen a high-brow novel to read and says they'll discuss it back at his place. To his great surprise Karen loves the book and recommends that Robert option it for a film instead of the mindless Doug Brown shoot-'em-up. She tries to persuade Robert to do something right that will make people think for a change and instead of pandering to their baser instincts to line his pockets.
Despite the play's realistic setting and Mamet's highly naturalistic dialogue with its repetitions, self-interruptions and overlaps, the play is in fact a satiric morality play. Robert is torn between Charlie, a venal toady for whom lucre is the highest goal, and Karen, naive and sincere, who wants Robert to lift head out of the slime to see he can use his power to do good. Mamet makes the battle ironic by making the high-brow novel "The Bridge" as loony as the Doug Brown script is inane. In fact, the Doug Brown script where the hero goes over to the side of his would-be prison rapists is closer to the reality of Charlie and Robert, who both call themselves "whores", than the apocalyptic novel which claims God has put all form of radiation on earth to mutate human genes in order to raise mankind to a higher level.
L.A.-based actor Jeff Seymour is excellent at showing us a young man basking in his new promotion but he is still able to suggest an insecurity underlying the bravado. He is hilarious in the scene at Robert's Malibu home where the drunken Robert can't get Karen to stop enthusing about the book long enough to notice he's trying to make a pass. Canadian-born Bill Elliot as Charlie is the perfect foil for Robert, a yes-man willing to contradict himself in a second if he thinks it will get him ahead. As he says, "It's only words, unless they're true". His best scene is the final one when Charlie allows his anger to burst out proving that he thinks all people are as unscrupulous as he is and that anyone who is not is a fool.
The role of Karen is a major problem. The character is really a blank and proof for some that Mamet doesn't know how to write roles for women. In some productions Karen has been played as if she knows when Robert gives her the book to read that this is her big chance to grab a little power. This production's interpretation is probably closer to Mamet's intention by making Karen truly naïve, deriving humour from her obtuseness to Robert's come-ons. Making her Toronto stage debut, Canadian-born Joely Collins (who happens to be singer Phil Collins's daughter) does her best with the underwritten role but still can't give Karen much individuality.
There is no credit for the sets and costumes. We see Robert's office on one side and his home's living room on the other with rather too large a gap between them. Jeff Seymour, also the director, has emphasized the awkwardness of the set by having scenes played in the extreme corners of each location. He always insures that he is facing toward the audience but this means that Fox and Collins have to deliver too many of their lines not just in profile but actually facing away from the audience. Seymour may be the star but a little more generosity in blocking would have increased the tension and made more lines more intelligible. He encourages rapid-fire line delivery but occasionally a slower pace, would be welcome, especially at the end when Robert has to make his choice between good and evil. Sandra Marcroft's lighting is unremarkable.
The phrase "Speed-the-Plow" does not occur in the play. Those familiar with arcane proverbs will know that it is a short for for "Godspeed the plow", a blessing on a farmer's labour. The title is clearly a criticism of the present-day "work" as nothing but deal-making benefiting no one but the deal-makers.
Though this may typify the work of the characters is does not reflect the work of the actors. All proceeds from "Speed-the-Plow" will go to C.O.R.E., the Centre for Opportunities, Respect and Empowerment, a group that help individuals with severe mental or developmental challenges make the transition from institutional to community living. Even if altruism is derided in the Mamet's cynical movieland, it's good it still exists somewhere in the real world. Robert Gould has the symbolic choice of the prison movie or "The Bridge". Even if he chooses to stay with the prison, you can choose the bridge.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Joely Collins, Jeff Seymour and Bill Elliot. ©2002 C.O.R.E.
2002-05-07
Speed-the-Plow