Geffen Playhouse Revives David Mamet's Classic American Buffalo

In The Dumb Waiter, Gus implodes: "What's he doing it for? We've been through our tests, haven't we? We got right through our tests, years ago, didn't we? We took them together, don't you remember, didn't we? We proved ourselves before now, haven't we? We've always done our job. What's he doing all this for? What's the idea? What's he playing these games for? ... WE'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT! NOTHING! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

American Buffalo's third character, Teach (Ron Eldard), suffers a similar collapse near that play's conclusion, after their planned heist has gone awry: "My Whole Cocksucking Life. The Whole Entire World. There Is No Law. There Is No Right and Wrong. The World Is Lies. There Is No Friendship. Every Fucking Thing. (pause) Every God-Forsaken Thing." (The script capitalizes every word, as though Mamet is crowing about rather than apologizing for the articulation of the play's larger view.)

I do wish Arney's production were tighter. The actors are magnificent, as is Takeshi Kata's ultra-cluttered set with stools and bicycle wheels and suitcases stacked at various altitudes. The play on the page is taut, yet onstage it plods, possibly from the excessive focus on the emotions flying across the room. The actors are good enough to keep those emotions wry, expressed in the glint of an eye or a furrowed eyebrow. Arney deserves credit for that, but he also deserves blame for the sagging cue pick-up, which slows the pace. Imagine Rice Krispies having sat too long in milk.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL LAMONT

Bill Smitrovich, left, Freddy Rodriguez and Ron Eldard

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Geffen Playhouse

10886 Le Conte Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Category: Theaters

Region: Out of Town

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More About

• Harold Pinter
• David Mamet
• Randall Arney
• Theatrical Plays
• Theater

Still, it's a revelation to see a play now regarded an American classic. Classics often are ultimately portraits of cruelty and despair. The mystery remains how two playwrights can have such a common understanding of the human condition and then, over the course of a lifetime, arrive at such opposite conclusions over what to do about it.

AMERICAN BUFFALO | By David Mamet | Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood | Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m.; through May 12 | (310) 208-5454 | geffenplayhouse.com