Industrial Strength: Speed the Plow

                Noted playwright and author David Mamet is an observer. Most good writers are. You never know what you may see that can inspire your imagination.

                In the case of Mamet's award-winning "Speed the Plow," Mamet's remembrance of a saying he'd seen written on "a lot of old plates and mugs" resulted in the 1988 play's title:  Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow.

                "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," Mamet said.

                However, at first glance, it's hard to see the connection. "Speed the Plow" takes a look at the symbiotic relationship a la shark-and-cuttle fish between Hollywood executive producer Bobby Gould (shark) and his partner, Charlie Fox (cuttle fish). Neither seem to do much work, beyond baiting, fawning, joking, and breaking off lines like "as red as the broken capillaries inside your nose."

                The play opens in Bobby's office which features a ladder in one corner and assorted carpet swatches on the wall-Bobby's just been promoted and is having his office redone.  Charlie enters as Bobby is perusing a book which will become the lynchpin to the entire play.

                The star in a David Mamet play is undoubtedly the script. As Wikipedia relates, Mamet's works are "known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing."  Dave Gamble as Bobby and Michael Leicht as Charlie both do an excellent job as they pace about the set, particularly Leicht, strutting, lounging, leaning, and posturing, brimming with the excitement that comes from knowing your ship has finally come in.

                In this case, that ship is an A-list actor named "Doug Brown" who has agreed to star in a "Lethal Weapon"-style "prison film" being co-produced by Bobby and Charlie. Mamet's plays are also known for their "exploration of masculinity," and that is clearly seen here as Charlie bows, wheedles, nods before his Alpha-male boss, but is done in such a way that is clear Charlie knows the power he wields as it is he who has brought home the prize--a Dougie Brown picture--to his master.

                Mamet's play is a send-up of the Hollywood movie factory, where men call each other "whores" and it is not considered an insult. Of course, something has to give, there must be some conflict or friction or else we have no play, so enter Beverly Shannon as the "temp" secretary, Karen.

                Shannon's Karen is, by her character's own admission, "naïve," though perhaps not as much as as Charlie, Bobbie-or even Karen herself-realize.  A gentleman's wager is struck--if Bobby can bed Karen he'll win $500 from Charlie--and the book, first seen in Bobby's hands at curtain's rise, plays a part.

                A novel "about radiation and the end of the world," the book is due only a "courtesy read," as a favor to a higher-up, far too philosophical and depressing to make a decent film...or so Bobby and Charlie believe. Karen has other ideas, and soon, as Bobby and Karen sip wine in Bobby's home, Bobby begins to fall prey to Karen's arguments. In synopsis:

                The book is about fear, how we are all afraid, and that the radiation from our cell phones and microwave ovens and everything else is changing us on a genetic level, making us aware that we are ultimately doomed and therefore, if we accept this, we will no longer be afraid.

                Huhhwhhaa?  is Bobby's response, played with perfect straight faced confusion by Gamble as Shannon's Karen makes an impassioned speech that's part 1960's-hippie-don't-you-get-it-man babblespeak and part seduction as Karen makes her argument personal. It isn't Mankind that's afraid, it's Bobby. And the answer of course is love. There's the God's love as the "gift of radiation," and then there's Karen's love (or really, sex) which soon drives a huge steel spike between Bobby and Charlie.

                While initially Bobby is all swarmy-smart-talk, after this Karen-treatment, he is quite serious.

                "I'm greenlighting the radiation movie," Bobby tells Charlie in a low, humorless voice. Charlie's reaction is somewhat akin to a man who's been told that that Governor's reprieve from the electric chair was just a joke.  It results in several acts of well choreographed stage violence that leave Bobby curled up on the floor.

                The play achieves it crescendo when Charlie and Karen do battle for Bobby's soul--make the Doug Brown action flick and make a ton of money, or do the radiation film, create art and reclaim your humanity.

                It's an interesting moment as one feels for Charlie, who has "taken Bobby's crap" for years and is stands at the brink of fulfilling a lifelong dream, but also for Karen, who has become the paladin for quality and culture. Can't a human being want to do good, AND wield power in Tinseltown as well? Mamet's characters are never black and white, and the fact that the audience feels torn between the two is a testament to Mamet's ability to build true-to-life characters faced with conflicts we can relate to...even if we aren't in the big-budget film industry.

                The Vagabond does a quality job in lighting, and stage design, and except for one glitch (the theme-appropriate cacophonic music which plays between acts and set changes started up briefly after a scene was underway), went quite smoothly.

                "Speed the Plow" continues its run at the Vagabond Players, 806 S. Broadway in downtown Baltimore, now through May 16^th with showtimes 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets, call 410-563-9135 or visit www.vagabondplayers.org.

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