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David Mamet

Mamet is probably America’s greatest living playwright. His work is in the tradition of the many artists that have come before him exploring the intricacies of human relations and the American relationship to each other and their heritage of land, business and capitalism: the American Dream. Yet Mamet’s work is singular in that it is, on one hand, vividly naturalistic; Mamet’s language is shaped by American culture, rendered in the idiom of his native Chicago and, primarily for most people who encounter Mamet, profane.

Working on the play it has been clear the links to the great works that come before it: business and the American Dream as explored by Miller, especially in ‘Death of a Salesman’; the fragility of the bonds between the three characters reminiscent of Tennessee Williams; the manic thrust of Edward Albee’s ‘Zoo Story’.Yet, the play is also filtered through some European influences that British theatre goers should be familiar with. The work of Pinter – pauses, the status shifts reflected in and embodied in the use of language – is a clear influence. There is also the work of Samuel Beckett in there; beyond and beneath the realism is the existential angst of Beckett’s tramps waiting for the titular Godot. ‘American Buffalo’ hinges upon the arrival of a key conspirator that Don and Teach are waiting for.

The challenge of Mamet for us is trying to access the American theatre tradition embodied in the text, yet we’re bolstered by the thought that the play has been shaped by ideas from these shores.




Language


‘American Buffalo’ is an American play. This is an obvious statement but it is also a fact that has a great bearing upon tackling the play.


The play is written in the vernacular of Chicago petty crooks, which means actors are presented with some interesting turns of phrase and grammatical constructions. One of the trickiest we’ve come across is the tendency to create one sentence out of two, such as ‘a thing that they stick in dead pigs keep their legs apart all the blood runs out’. On the surface a simple statement but try learning it without cleaning it up and reinserting the missing words to make it clearer.


The play is also written in a way that, seemingly, replicates real conversation so characters speak sentences or phrases or even just one word. They overlap each other, they repeat themselves, they speak and mutter under their breath. All of this adds further complications for us. Theatre is choreographed real life, a rendering and representation, and trying to find the sign posts for setting and repeating such conversations is a real challenge. The actors often find themselves looking for their next line only to be prompted with ‘yeah’ or ‘nothing, you know?’ or a number of phrases that they may say a multitude of times during the course of the play: how do you take a succession of monosyllabic exchanges and find the thrust or pattern of a staged dialogue?


Yet, there is a deeper level to this language. It only seems like real conversation, but Mamet’s reference points go beyond mere realism. These are characters who cannot fathom the world and their place within it; they are unable to express the fundamental crisis they are in. They are unable to wield the language necessary to fully communicate their feelings or make connections with other people. For them language is power, if they can master language then they have some control over their lives; if they can master language then they have some degree of power over others. This inability to express fundamental emotional truths means that real emotions become a source of weakness and weaknesses can be exploited. Again we are brought back to the American Dream and capitalist business: business to these characters is a means of legitimate exploitation of others needs or weaknesses. The action of the play rests on the premise that Don sold a nickel, worth 5 cents, for nearly $100 but, rather than feeling triumphant at a great bit of business, feels incensed that he had been taken advantage of – regardless of the fact he was ignorant of the coins existence within his shop never mind its value.


So these guys find meaning and expression in the misappropriation of language. They absorb, filter and recycle the language of American culture, business and capitalism through the only experiences they know. Thus they refer to themselves as business men, extol the virtues of business and the weakness of friendship and when defining the nature of Free Enterprise Teach declares it to be: ‘The freedom of the Individual… To Embark on… Any Fucking Course that he sees fit.’ Therefore business is not seen as a crime because crime is merely another form of business.


Note the expletive . The play is full of profane language but this is not simply to reflect the real speech of such ‘low lives’. Of course, they would speak in such a way but when language is the key principle of the play then every word is of great importance, which includes profanity. These are men who cannot express themselves yet need to fill the silence to avoid the existential reminder of mortality, of facing the loneliness of existence, of trying to form a bridge between themselves while simultaneously trying to avoid placing themselves in a position of weakness. Thus swearing fills those gaps, words that are accessible when words fail, are a raw expression of existence if not experience. This aphasia then becomes precise and at times a form of urban poetry: ‘You fake, you fucking fake, you fuck your friends you have no friends, no wonder you fuck this kid around’.


One of the most recent observations I made was the imprecision of this aphasia blurring the boundaries of their existence. While referring to items that recall the 1933 Chicago World Far, a social mile stone in the city’s conscience, Don and Teach can only vaguely grasp the concept and refer to it as ‘the thing’. Whilst planning the heist again they nebulously refer to it as ‘the thing’. Thus in one quick stroke a key moment in history, of technological advancements, of hope, of the manifestation of the American Dream is placed on an equal footing as a small time coin heist. The language available to these inarticulate and monosyllabic men cannot differentiate between the two.