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Mamet’s Race

Just came back from viewing "Race" by arguably one of America's greatest modern playwrights David Mamet. I've never been really big on Mamet, but a lot of the profs at my uni were, so we spoke and read his work often. (Chekhov was another biggy, and one of my great collegiate accomplishments was getting through college NEVER EVER EVER reading, performing, directing or SMing Anton Chekhov^W (although I think Piia and Katia once took us to see a modern Chekhov version with Reuben who was tripping on acid (it may have been an Henrik Ibsen^W play... who I've never liked since high school, oy), and I remember John doing a modern retelling for his theatre company as well (with Browne, iirc)).

Anyway, Mamet. Mamet, for those not familiar with his work, is an angry Jew who loves to curse more than a two bit Dutch hooker on a bender, which means that his potty mouth is 10x worse than mine, possibly more. This, as any American theatre student can tell you, is not an exaggeration. The man knows one thousand was to say fuck, cocksucker, asshole, bitch, cunt, shit, shithead, and then some. One would think that Mamet would be a hero of mine, but I just never got into him. He also always struck me as a bit misogynistic, but some would argue against that, I think.

On top of his cursing, he's also known for his dialogue, which I won't touch upon here. He likes to tackle topics that others won't. In this case, it's rape and race.

Richard Thomas^W (yes, the John Boy) plays Charles Strickland, a married billionaire who has been accused of raping a black women, who claims that her red sequined dress was torn from her body. He goes to the law offices of Jack Lawson (Eddie Izzard) and Henry Brown (Dennis Haysbert^W) after firing his first attorney. Due to the machinations of their assistant Susan (played by almost newcomer Afton C. Williamson), they wind up taking the case even though they wanted to not have anything to do with it.

They play takes place completely in one room of the law office. The design was simple but extremely elegant, and at first glance I thought it might be a little uneven (I was sitting center, so had a good vantage point), but realized that it was extremely well-balanced. Yes, I look at these things when I (rarely) go to the stage. I can't help it, I was trained for it. I even looked at how the lights were focused. I wasn't keen on some of the blocking; I felt that it took away from the focus/energy of the moment a few times. In my work, I was all about focusing energy, and with Mamet, the communication between two or more actors is extremely important and needs to have that energy focused for the words to come alive. Because of this, there were times where I felt the beats were uneven. I also thought Thomas was a little off. I didn't realize at first that he was meant to be the rich man being accused of a heinous crime by his mistress, nor did I really believe the remorse he expressed when he wanted to make a statement to the press for cheating on his wife, or when he realized that as a kid his joking upset his black roommate and friend

Oy, I'm talking all theatre geek talk. I can totally picture Stevie reading this and fist pumping

Anyway, I found the play very poignant, but not for these times. Race relations between black and white were an extremely important theme of the play, and, to a lesser extent gender relations (not necessarily talking sexual here). But in thinking about it, I don't think Race will ever not be poignant, and at the same time ever right for any time. It's a brilliant play, I have to admit, but I don't think that it will ever have the same effect as, say, Angels in America^W had for AIDS and the gay community. Race might be something they teach in college in a 100 years to show what it used to be like, but I don't think you'll be seeing it on the boards during America's next race blowup.

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 After the show I waited by the stage door for autographs. My real reason for seeing the show was to meet Eddie Izzard, and I DID! I'm lazy, so this is what I wrote on Facebook:

i felt like i would cry while i was waiting for him, but i also got to meet Richard Thomas first, who thought i was in my 20s, and then i did the math and told him i was only 12 years younger than he (he's been on the boards for almost 52 years, that's why age came up)

eddie answered really honestly some questions this wannabe actress had about getting into the business. honey, your hook was totally obvious, but he was kind enough to spend some time talking to her.

I told him I saw his show at MSG, and asked him what it was like going from doing standup in huge arenas to doing a drama in a much smaller house, and he admitted that it was a very difficult challenge for him. I wanted to ask him if he was as critical of his stage performances in theatre as he is with his standup, but i didn't want to be greedy.

I also met Afton, and told her her final line, which is what the play ended on, was the show. It's a shame she is a replacement for the original actress (as are all the others save Thomas, who's been with the show since the beginning, which may explain his performance tonight), because I think she deserved a Tony nod. This is her second Broadway show, her first being August Wilson's "Joe Turner" (Wilson is (not arguably) one of America's great playwrights). She was the original understudy for Susan who won the role when the cast changed. I was really impressed with her performance, and told her she had a bright future ahead of her. I also told her that I hate Mamet, but she made him come alive, and she could tell him that she met some weird girl who hates his worked but loved her performance.

I spoke at length with Haysbert, because I've had some fairly interesting (to me) questions in regards to the difference between stage acting and film/tv acting. In theatre, you get 5 or 6 weeks to rehearse, block, tech, etc. Being that this was his first time on the boards, he was the perfect person to ask about the difference in rehearsing. He said, basically, you just do a lot of takes. I asked about character history and development and he said a lot of that is mostly just research rather than building your character through performance. Being that I've not done theatre in almost 15 years and that question has bugged me forever, I have to say meeting Eddie in real life and my conversation with Haysbert were pretty much very important highlights for me.

Race is closing soon. It's actually recouped (Wikipedia says it's the first play of the 2009-10 season to have done so). The house wasn't that full, maybe 60-75%. I was last row upper mez, and moved to seats that cost twice as much what I had before the second act started. I assume orchestra was full.

Would I recommend the play? Well, Broadway, and the reason why I don't like it, is known for its showy bullshit like Wicked and Lion King and fucking Cats and Les Miz and shit like that, which is why I never like The Great Shitty Way in the first place. Comedy does okay, drama is always iffy unless it's done big. I'd recommend it, actually, and remember: I don't like Mamet