American Buffalo
“American Buffalo” by David Mamet is a play that I had never
read or seen before Friday night at The Geffen Playhouse, a venue I had never
even entered. My lack of familiarity with the work allowed me to go in
completely blind, and this was actually quite refreshing.
Ideally, The human condition would be one of positivity,
hope and trust. Unfortunately, that is not the case. We get in the way of our
own good, and allow paranoia and fear to set in. Many of Mamet’s plays explore
these depraved and hopeless instances of life, and we watch as the protagonists
grasp at their last moments of hope for potential success. “American Buffalo”
is no different, filled with the colorful language that Mamet is known for,
along with smart, witty banter and jokes.
The production is set in a second-hand junk shop, which is
perfectly designed by Takeshi Kata. Old toasters, baubles, baseball bates and
rackets are just some of the items strewn about the place, and it does not
appear to be very organized or easy to navigate. The detailed setting is one of
seemingly organized chaos, with too many items to catalog or even notice. Act
One opens with Don (played by Bill Smitrovich), an older blue-collar man and
owner of the junkshop. He is a father figure to Bobby (played by Freddy
Rodriguez), a dim young man. Throughout the play, Don gives Bobby advice about
food and life, and although Bobby listens and repeats Don’s words, it seems as
though he doesn’t really believe or understand these things. Smitrovich and Rodriguez
do a beautiful job crafting a complex relationship.
The third character of the show, Teach (played by Ron
Eldard), is a strong willed, beast of a man, who looks down on Bobby and his
ignorance. He is constantly seeking the approval of Don, while also attempting
to persuade him of his own credibility and acumen. Once he enters the scene,
the true banter and wit of Mamet takes off. Eldard’s performance as the
catalyst for the story is truly compelling. His skill of dialogue and
theatrical presence allowed me to be constantly surprised and interested in his
characters’ journey. He shines during both the comedic and dramatic moments of
the play.
Through the three men’s chatter, we discover that a man
recently came into the shop and purchased a buffalo coin for $90. Since that
man left, Don questioned the true value of the coin, and realized he probably
could have gotten much more money for it. Feeling slighted by the man, Don,
Bobby and Teach decide to steal the coin back. After Don sends Bobby on an errand
for food and coffee, Teach attempts to convince Don that they should do the
robbery without the help of Bobby, and split the ultimate profit between just
the two of them. Through much debate, Don questions Teach over his ability to
actually pull of a heist; how to get into a locked house, what if the house has
an alarm, what is the coin is in a locked safe. Don eventually agrees to cut
Bobby out of the plan, and despite Teach’s misgivings, Don decides to add their
other friend Fletch (who is more adept at this type of thievery) into the plan.
Eventually Bobby returns, with a buffalo coin in his
possession, asking if Don or Teach want to buy it off of him. And that’s when
Teach begins to question Bobby and his motives. We find out that he thinks
Bobby went ahead with the heist without them (but with Fletch instead) and is
attempting to sell them the coin they were going to steal. As Don and Teach
question Bobby for more information, it appears that he is evading the truth,
even giving wrong information about Fletch’s current whereabouts. This angers
Teach. In an instant, he beats Bobby over the head with a bat, causing him to
double over and bleed profusely from the head. Teach then takes his anger out
on the shop itself, destroying shelves of goods and throwing items onto the
floor. As Bobby lays on the ground bleeding, the phone rings, revealing that
Bobby was actually telling the truth about Fletch’s location, and that he
simply purchased a similar looking buffalo coin from another man.
The second act of “American Buffalo” is where everything
comes together; the acting, the directing, the dynamics between the characters.
It all culminates into a beautiful give and take, which I was equally riveted
and disturbed by. The climax was especially terrifying. I was surprised by
Teach’s ability to cause physical harm to Bobby. He had seemed like a steady,
methodical man, who was somewhat agitated by events of the day, but didn’t seem
to be capable of hurting his friend. And yet he does, enraged by his distrust of
Bobby, terrified of his fear of having been had by another, dimmer man, and
ultimately his paranoia was his downfall. I continue to think about this idea.
At any moment, due to the limits and weaknesses of humanity, any man or woman
can simply snap, and be willing to cause extreme physical harm (or even death)
to another human being.
I am also struck by another prominent theme of this show:
the pursuit (and ultimate failure) of the American Dream. These three men
desire success and prominence, even a sense of importance. Yet their life will
always cycle around this junkshop, always returning to a state of inaction and
inability to move up out of the blue-collar life. It seems that the only way
they could even attempt to get prominence is through means of deception and
burglary, not true, honest work that the American Dream promises. Mamet seems
to convey the pursuit for the American Dream is hopeless.
The entirety of the show is in one location, the junkyard
shop, and a good amount of the discussion between these men is about things
that will happen in the Future, or about characters, Fletch for example, that
we never actually see on stage. Really, not much plot actually happens
throughout the duration of the two hours these actors are on stage, and yet I am
interested in what is going on between these people. This is a testament to the
wonderfully layered writing of Mamet, and the expert direction of Randall
Arney. It reminds me of a phrase stated by Don near the beginning of the play,
“Action talks and bullshit walks.” He is essentially saying that is easy for
man to say things or complain about things or praise things, but it is much
more difficult to actually do something. And these three men, although having
discussed at length their potential heist, never actually do it. It is their
inaction that inevitably tells us everything about them.
The Geffen Playhouse’s
American Buffalo by David Mamet
runs Tuesdays through Sundays with
both matinee and evening performances in the Gil Cates Theater through May 12
at 10886 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles CA 90024.
Call (310) 208 5454 for
tickets or
