AMERICAN BUFFALO. To 18 May.

Manchester

AMERICAN BUFFALO
by David Mamet

Royal Exchange Theatre To 18 May 2002
Mon-Fri 7.30 Sat 8pm Mats Wed 2.30pm & Sat 4pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
Audio described Mat 11 May

TICKETS 0161 833 9833
Review Timothy Ramsden 29 April

Strong revival of Mamet's disenchanted view of the American Dream.Never has the Exchange put such junk on stage. Di Seymour's set for Don's emporium contains the kind of stuff nobody'd ever be expected to want. But as Mamet's story rolls out backwards as much as it moves forward, it becomes clear there's been one valuable amid the rows of rubbish that fill the stage. It's an American Buffalo; a coin that seems almost as prestigious to U.S. numismatists as the Penny Black would be with British philatelists.

So Don and his two associates decide to steal it back. Not easy, with these three. Donny and Teach see the world entirely through their own anti-trust laws. Their suspicions focus on Bobby, who in Paul Popplewell's touching performance is clearly someone valuing himself only through the status Donny's operation gives him. This boy can't even get a simple coffee and pastries order right, yet the others have him marked down as a double-crosser.

Violence can erupt physically, but it's ever-threatening in the language – not so much in the fragmented, obscenity flavoured dialogue Mamet famously developed (but to which he's by no means restricted), as in the way a thought is smacked-back between two people. As if neither wanted to accept it. Emotion, not reason, drives speech and characters chuck the lines between each other, creating an oppositional stand-off.

Director Greg Hersov plays it slower than some – which is not the same as too slow - losing some of the dialogue's crackle but giving a sense of characters weighing their thoughts, waiting for others to see their point. Which the others never do, being so locked into the way they see things.

Mike McShane's strong presence makes Doony more a leader than a team player, while Ben Keaton's Teach is less mercurial than the part's often played. But the inward fury's clear – so much that when he overturns Donny's stock the action seems tame (tamed mainly by the need not to fling the set over the stalls audience).

This remains one of Mamet's major creations, and Hersov's team catch its view of U.S. no-hoper entrepreneurial dreams.

Donny: Mike McShane
Bobby: Paul Popplewell
Teach: Ben Keaton

Director: Greg Hersov
Designer: Di Seymour
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: Steve Brown
Fights: Renny Krupinski
Dialect coach: Penny Dyer

2002-05-06 13:16:00