Bad boys
MICHAEL SMITH World Entertainment Writer, 03/28/2001
Teach (Steve Tommey, whose role is now played by Ken Spence) threatens Bobby (Duwayne Mills) with a gun while Donny (Randall Walen) tries to stay out of the line of fire in this scene from Theater Pops' production of "American Buffalo," the David Mamet play about three low-rent hoods planning a coin collection heist. DAVID CRENSHAW / Tulsa World
David Mamet's 'American Buffalo' is populated by modern-day pirates
There's something you realize watching the guys in David Mamet's plays, be it the brutish fellows planning a heist in "American Buffalo," or the real estate sharks of "Glengarry Glen Ross" or the morally bankrupt movie producers of "Speed-the-Plow."
They're all the same guys.
Sure, these blokes are separated by socioeconomic factors and more, but at their core, they appear to be rotten. If not blatantly crooks, they're always pirates, and somebody is looking to get over on somebody else.
There's very little honor among thieves, as seen in director Ken Spence's description of Don, one of the main characters in his Theater Pops' production of "American Buffalo" opening Thursday at the Nightingale Theater.
"Donny is the owner of a junk shop who has taken under his wing this young drug addict, who he's trying to put on the right road, so he's making a thief out of him," Spence says.
"The people in these plays have a certain sense of decency among themselves, as flawed as it is," he said. "But as far as screwing one another over? Hey, that happens in the boardroom, and at the bank, and at General Motors, and with arms dealers and at our workplaces. It happens on all levels of life, and here it's turned upside down with these guys, and it may leave some people wondering things like, `Was I really that different (from these guys) when I was screwing that person out of that promotion?' "
Spence has the leeway to pretty much pick and choose his projects for his Theater Pops group. Mamet's play provides them with many challenges, if not the standing-room-only security that other shows might.
"You play that game and sometimes it backfires on you," he said. "The main thing is to do something that's interesting to you and worry about the box office later. This is a show we've wanted to do for some time."
Heightening the degree of difficulty for this production is the fact that Spence has been forced to step in as performer as well, due to a last-minute cast loss. It's not the way he would want to do it, but Mamet's rapid-fire dialogue will likely force him to carry a script during the show.
"American Buffalo" was Mamet's first claim to fame in 1976 as a great writer of both strong prose and strong language. It would not be his last shot at a biting satire of big business in America and the moral shortcomings of the capitalist system.
"We excuse all sorts of great and small betrayals and ethical compromises called business," Mamet has said since.
The play's essence is that greed is not good. It is brutally honest in its portrayal of these brutes' agenda, while at the same time cynically humorous in depicting life on the streets of modern urban America.
In a Chicago junk shop, three petty thieves plot to rob a man of his coin collection. Its existence became known when the collector discovered a valuable buffalo-head nickel in Don's Resale Shop. The trio fancy themselves as "people who've bought into the idea that the world is your oyster; all you have to do is just open it up and take what's inside," Spence said.
Don (played by Randal Whalen) is the shop owner and dim- witted fence who's mentoring Bobby (Duwayne Mills), the young junkie who feels a sense of obligation to Don. Added to this mix is Walter Cole (Spence), known to the guys as "Teach," a violent, paranoid, braggart hustler who's a failure in life but sees himself as superior to everyone he's ever met.
"It's ridiculous listening to them talk about how they're going to do this," Spence said. "You think to yourself, `This is stupid. This isn't going to work.' These guys aren't professionals; they're morons who think they're going to break into this guy's house to steal his coin collection, and they're not even sure if there is a coin collection. I laugh every night as I listen to their reasoning.
"People may say, `Well, these people are scum. Why is Mamet glorifying them by writing about them?' Well, he's not. He's saying you shouldn't be like them, don't follow their path in life. It's something that our system has taught us as men, to be takers and not givers, not sowers of seeds, not people who create and grow and build to make the world a better place instead of exploiting it."
Michael Smith, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8334 or via e-mail at michael.smith@tulsaworld.com