Life is good: Little Theater takes on Mamet play
Life is good for Bobby Gould.
He has been promoted head of production at a major Hollywood studio, and his longtime associate Charlie Fox has dropped a gold mine on Bobby’s desk.
See, Doug Brown has paid Charlie a visit. Brown is a box office draw for another studio, but he’s interested in making a movie Charlie sent his way a long time ago.
Bobby is excited. To land a big star at the beginning of his new career surely would impress studio boss Richard Ross, not to mention instantly make Bobby a big player in Hollywood.
Then Charlie tells Bobby about a book given to him by “some Eastern sissy writer.” The writer wants Charlie to read the book and consider it for a movie.
But Bobby has a better idea. He makes a bet that he can seduce his temp secretary Karen and gives her the book under the guise that her opinion matters, that if she thinks the book is good he may consider it for a film.
Right.
It turns out that her opinion does really matter. And life changes for Bobby if only for a split second.
“He finds himself,” Kevin Harger said. “And in that way, the play is about making that discovery.”
Harger plays Bobby Gould in Baton Rouge Little Theater’s production of David Mamet’s Speed-The-Plow. The play opens Friday, Feb. 24, and is the first of the theater’s two Second Stage productions in its 2011-12 season.
Mamet once told The Chicago Tribune about a motto he remembered.
“I remembered the saying that you see on a lot of old plates and mugs: ‘Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow,’” he said.
“This, I knew, was a play about work and about the end of the world, so ‘Speed-The-Plow’ was perfect because not only did it mean work, it meant having to plow under and start over again.”
Which is exactly what happens in his satire Speed-The-Plow. Just when the work seems to be done, everything is plowed under, and the players start the process again, not only in the process of film production but in life.
And yes, the description of this play is correct. It’s a satire, filled with humor mapped out by rich dialogue.
Which is what attracted the actors to this play.
“Oh, definitely David Mamet,” Ronald Coats said.
He plays Charlie.
“When you hear that someone is doing one of David Mamet’s plays, you definitely want to audition for it,” Coats continued. “It’s the language. It’s written in the way people talk, and it doesn’t always come in complete sentences.”
“And there’s a lot of it,” Harger said. “It’s a challenge.”
“There are times when the characters are talking over each other,” Kaitlyn Stockwell said.
She’s Karen, the third character in this story.
“And Karen is idealistic,” Stockwell said. “This is really the first time I’ve really had a chance to play a character that’s near my age.”
True. Stockwell is in her 20s, but her last appearance on a Baton Rouge Little Theater stage was as Blanche Dubois in the theater’s October production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.
“Blanche was in her 40s, so it’s really a change for me to play Karen,” Stockwell said. “And I like her, because, as a young artist, I identify with her idealism, because she believes in what film can do for the world. I’m the same way.”
Now, Karen was originated on the Broadway stage by Madonna. Yes, the same pop music queen who wowed audiences during the Superbowl XLVI halftime show in Indianapolis on Feb. 5.
Speed-The-Plow premiered in Broadway’s Royale Theatre on May 3, 1988. Starring alongside Madonna were Joe Mantegna as Bobby Gould and Ron Silver as Charlie Fox.
The play was revived in Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Oct. 23, 2008, with Jeremy Piven as Bobby, Raul Esparza as Charlie and Elisabeth Moss as Karen.
Both Broadway runs won Tony Awards for the actors playing Charlie.
“I’d never seen the play before I started working with it,” David Coley said.
He’s the director, and he, too, was attracted to the story because Mamet had written it.
“When I was casting the play, I was looking for actors with the intelligence to pull it off,” Coley said. “I really was. The dialogue is complex, and I needed a cast that could pull it off.”
Mamet is known for his satirical dissections of the movie business, having revisited the theme in his films Wag the Dog in 1997 and State and Main in 2000.
“I’ve done a variety of different things here, but I’ve discovered I get more enjoyment out of plays,” Harger said. “And now I have a chance to experience something as gritty as a Mamet play.”
His character has reached a pinnacle and is riding high.
“But Bobby doesn’t realize he’s on a tight rope,” Harger said. “Then he has to topple on the wire to realize who he is.”
And Charlie is ambitious.
“He’s always in Bobby’s shadow, and he wants to break out,” Coats said. “He goes through a wide range of emotions.”
And then there’s Karen.
“I’m still figuring her out,” Stockwell said.
Mamet provides the dialogue but very little stage direction in his scripts.
“And that’s great, because we’re able to develop the characters,” Coats said.
So, as everyone establishes who their character is and why, one thing is certain when the story opens.
Life is good for Bobby Gould.
Cast: Kevin Harger, Bobby Gould; Ronald Coats, Charlie Fox; and Kaitlyn Stockwell, Karen.
DIRECTOR: David Coley.