speed-the-plow david mamet artist note: Jordan Pettle Being in rehearsal for both Speed-The-Plow and The Sunshine Boys, I am currently feeling like a very negligent parent. Not to my actual son, who I start and end my days with, but to the two characters I am trying to create. One is a Hollywood producer, the other a New York Agent. Neither is shy about making me feel guilty for leaving one to work on another. It’s a great challenge. But as we get closer to previews for Speed-The-Plow I am trying to get some perspective on this process. I have had the great fortune in my career to work with those closest to me; my brother, my wife, my sister-in-law, my friends. And now I get to work with one of my best friends, Ari Cohen. A great man and a pretty decent Actor. In David f*@%ing Mamet! With David f*@%ing Storch! And Sarah f*@%ing Wilson! At Soul f*@%ing pepper! Life in the movie business may be like the beginning of a love affair (see: Act one) but life in the theatre has its moments of true bliss. This, so far, is one of them.
Jordan Pettle,Charlie Fox in Speed-the-Plow
a message from the artistic director Artists love David Mamet. We get to behave in ways and say things in his plays that we would never be allowed to otherwise. We get to destroy an opponent and dance on his ashes. There is a guilty pleasure in this. A little Mamet at night is a great way to get rid of the day’s frustrations. To do this day after day and survive a run, however, you need to love ach other. Strange thing, the theatre. Today you will be watching three gifted actors in vicious verbal conflict. After their bows, they will kiss and hug and go home to their loved ones refreshed. May you too find refreshment in the spoils of this play.
Albert Schultz, Artistic Director
illustration: brian Rea
speed-the-plow david mamet
u.s.a. 1988
production
cast
David Storch director
Ari Cohen Bobby Gould
Dana Osborne Set & Costume designer
Jordan Pettle Charlie Fox
Kimberly Purtell lighting designer
Sarah Wilson Karen
John Gzowski sound designer Marinda de Beer Production Stage manager Andrea Schurman assistant stage manager Simon Fon fight director Toby Malone Dramaturge Kelly McEvenue Alexander Coach Elizabeth Saunders assistant director
production sponsor
Speed-the-Plow is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. Originally produced by Lincoln Centre Theatre, New York City. Audio and/or video recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited Approximate running time 1 hour and 40 minutes. There will be no intermission.
background notes David Mamet is a connoisseur of fear. Fear juices his dramas, powers his imagination and drives his characters. It’s the motor behind the propulsive dialogue for which he is justly famous. Underneath all the bluster and bravado are pure, unadulterated adult terrors: fear of death, fear of being weak, fear of being left behind, fear of making the wrong move, fear of not winning, fear of not being able to keep on winning. In Speed-the-Plow the American movie business is the lens through which Mamet takes an unflinching look at the always uneasy relationship between art and commerce, money and love. The play premiered twenty-five years ago and it’s still compelling. It still makes us laugh out loud. Why? Well, this is Mamet so the writing is sharp and full of unexpected corners. The characters are passionate, contradictory and always recognizable as they struggle to get what they want. In three compressed and explosive scenes, the playwright essentially asks us to follow his version of the eternal fight between God and the Devil. And this is Mamet, so we do. Gladly. Nobody in the play is quite what they seem. Part of what’s fascinating here is that Bobby, a Hollywood producer who could easily be a stereotypical corporate shark, experiences a powerful moral temptation. He is strongly attracted, suddenly, to purity. To the idea of doing the right thing, to the image of himself choosing meaning and heart over the bottom line. For his friend and colleague Charlie, this catastrophe unleashes both primal anger and a primal survival instinct. Mamet’s dialogue is known for laying bare the inner workings of male relationships but here some of the most persuasive, heartfelt writing is given to Karen, the young temp who has to balance her untested ideals against a chance to grab the brass ring. The perils and pleasures of seduction, whether physical, emotional, moral or spiritual, take us, as always with Mamet, into uncomfortable yet thrilling territory. Slowly, inexorably, we ourselves become implicated in the decisions these people ultimately take. Fear is an unspoken but palpable presence. It is the fire fed by the characters’s threats, competitiveness, longing, hope, rage and uncertainty. They each have so much to lose, and so much to gain. None of them can risk a single mistake. And in a world where you can’t make a mistake, you can’t achieve anything great. You can’t afford to see another point of view. You can’t afford to care. You can only survive. Nobody is better than Mamet at charting the costs of that survival, or the ravages of what critic Jack Kroll called the disease of “moral epilepsy.” Daily life is full of small battles with large consequences. We enter the arena every morning, and spend our days fighting or giving in to large and small temptations. For us, as for the very human characters at the centre of this play, the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher. We are all fighting for our lives.
Biography David Mamet was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1947. After studying to be an actor, Mamet burst onto the scene as a playwright with early one-acts The Duck Variations (1972) and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974). Mamet’s best-known works, American Buffalo (1975) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) brought him national attention and cemented his status as a leading playwright of his generation. Speed-the-Plow (1988), well-known but one of his lesser-produced works, deals with similar themes of moral poverty in the face of contemporary American capitalism.
Background Notes by Associate Artist Paula Wing.
soulpepper production Jacqueline Robertson-Cull
Kathleen Johnston
wardrobe coordinator
Geoff Hughes
Gwendolyn Neelin
cutter
dresser
head of hair & makeup
Mike Keays
Barbara Nowakowski
Greg Chambers
Tracy Taylor
carpenter
1st hand
props builder
props buyer
Duncan Johnstone
Daniela Mazic
Paul Boddum
scenic artist
scenic artist
painter
Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Scenic Artists and Set Decorators employed by Soulpepper Theatre Company are represented by Local 828 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
IS DEDICATED TO SUPPORTING WOMEN IN THEATRE BY ANNUALLY FUNDING A PRODUCTION AT SOULPEPPER. Members of Top Women are keen supporters of Toronto’s arts community with a passion for theatre. Since 2007, Top Women has raised $200,000 to sponsor Soulpepper productions that prominently feature female Actors, Playwrights, Directors, or Designers. Soulpepper looks forward to celebrating Top Women at an uncensored evening on September 20, 2012 discussing a play that challenges morality, sex and power in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow. Top Women Membership contact: Diane Cook at diane@soulpepper.ca or 416.203.6264 x.128
Soulpepper thanks
for their generous support of Speed-the-Plow
YOUNG CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DISTILLERY HISTORIC DISTRICT