Dan's Papers - January 18, 2008 - review: glengarry glen ross

The fact that this is a play where desperate real estate salesmen fight and claw for their very existence, and that of their families in some cases, is almost incidental. It could be transposed to so many different life settings and still succeed. David Mamet is a master storyteller and playwright whose characters, if at times slightly caricatured, are undeniably believable. Whether you want to minutely analyze the play and the words for hidden meanings and statements on the social politics of the modern world or whether you just want to sit back and let the play invade your senses so that you forget the world outside the theater is really up to you. (I prefer the latter because I still firmly believe that Shakespeare just wrote his plays to enthrall and delight the masses at the Globe Theater and not so that they could be verbally dissected by millions of schoolchildren over the centuries after his death.)

Glengarry Glen Ross is widely regarded as one of the best plays of the modern era and one that even today, almost 25 years after its first production, can still merit a place in London's West End and entice stars such as Jonathan Pryce. Many people have seen the award-winning film made back in 1992 with one of the best casts ever for any production - Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin and Alan Arkin. The play, though, is quite different from the film with more moments of offbeat, if still black, humor.

The members of the Hampton Theatre Company are renowned for never refusing a challenge, as a look back at their production list shows. So this was a play that had to be on their "to do" list. It is also a play where casting is exceptionally important because of the strengths and weaknesses of each character and the interplay as they fight for survival. In this production, every member of the cast shone and the direction by Bob Kaplan was excellent. The actors combined verbal and body language with crisp timing that made the totality very fluid and realistic.

The play opens in a nondescript Chinese restaurant as members of the sales force bemoan their lot and the inequities of the system of giving them sales leads, because they now have to really fight for survival because the two poorest performers in the next sales drive will be terminated. The product they are selling is some dubious quality land in Glengarry Glen Ross, a development in Florida. So selling these on a cold call basis is unbelievably stressful even for some of the most hard-nosed closers you will ever meet. In the restaurant scene, three vignettes play out and introduce the characters. Shelley Levene (Phil Eberhardt), a star salesman of the past is now in the throes of a very dry spell of productivity. John Williamson, the office manager (Robert Sean Miller) is not a salesman, doesn't like them and it shows. Dave Moss (Andrew Botsford) has such deeply entrenched anger it is almost visible and he sets up a scheme with the weakest and oldest member of the team, George Aaronow (George Loizides) to break into the office and steal the prized super leads that everyone covets, for they may hold the path to success, a new car and above all, continued employment. The last is played out between an unsuspecting man, James Lingk (Paul Marino), who is simply enjoying his meal until the larger than life and twice as nasty, super smooth salesman Richard Roma (Edward Kassar) sits down next to him, emotes into an astounding monologue that seems initially to have no relevance but which adroitly segues into a sales pitch, that leaves James bemused, poorer and the owner of a piece of Florida - just like that.

After some smooth set changing at the interval, the office has been robbed and a mess is left. The various protagonists work their individual evil ways to try and best each other, the inept cop (Billy Paterson) handling the burglary and James, who is now attempting to get his money back after his wife found out what he had done. The plot unfolds with some subtle twists and at the end you are left a little drained and feeling a mixture of revulsion and sympathy for these characters who are left to continue their apparently never ending purgatory of an existence.

Set designer, Peter Marbury, technical director James Ewing, lighting designer Sebastian Paczynski, costume designer Teresa Lebrun and stage manager John Zaleski combine their talents in a production where everything looks and sounds professional. Overall production is by Sarah Hunnewell and Diana Marbury.

But now a word of warning. Glengarry Glen Ross probably holds the record for the number of four-letter swear words in a play. David Mamet uses the vernacular of a stressful all male environment to great effect. Currently a TV beer commercial is based on how the word "dude" can be inflected and stressed in many ways to totally alter its perceived meaning - well Mamet got there first, only he uses primarily some different four-letter words, so don't go if you are likely to find these words so offensive that it will spoil your evening. If you do go though, I believe you will leave feeling that you have experienced great theater performed by a cast of very talented actors.

Glengarry Glen Ross continues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 2.30 p.m. until January 27. For tickets call (631) 653-8955.