SPEED-THE-PLOW. To 17 June.

Manchester

SPEED-THE-PLOW
by David Mamet

Library Theatre To 17 June 2006
Mon-Thu 7.30pm Fri & Sat 8pm May 3, 10, 14, 17 June 3pm
Audio-described 14 June 7.30pm 17 June 3pm (+ touch tour 1 hr before show)
Captioned 7 June
Runs 1hr 50min One interval

TICKETS: 0161 236 7110
www.librarytheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 June

The fizz and the fury caught, with contrasting slow-movement contrast.
For all his 4-letter word fame, David Mamet has a fierce moral base in his exposee of Hollywood as an alternative universe where power and money in uncountable oodles create an individualistic paradise on Californian earth. But power's elusive till one morning it walks through studio exec. Fox's front-door. He can offer a surefire name for a film project, and old pal Gould, new-promoted to commissioning status, goes with it. Years of servility - Mamet's men put it more graphically – is about to pay off.

Except Fox has a side-bet in a moment of anticipatory elation, that Gould can't bed, or otherwise engage, his cool young secretarial temp. He does but in the process she persuades him to ditch the paydirt movie and put a moral (and completely unfilmable) alternative to the studio boss.

Chris Honer's production captures the opening scene's boys'-own exhilaration, the prospect of megabucks exciting the men into verbal pirouettes and a near physical dance of selfish fulfillment. Dawn Allsopp's set opens out for the central act, a nocturne in setting and mood set in Bobby's house, where Rachael's gone to report on the alternative project, fully aware of her boss-for-the-time-being's carnal intentions.

Back in the office, the last scene's an allegro furioso of competing themes. All the last night's calm, purposeful discussion explodes in Charlie's fury. It takes several goes before he hears, let alone believes, Gould's statement he won't be making their film, before detonating in bitter rage and leaving Gould choosing between betraying new-found ideals or his friend. Not that Gould truly chooses; pride ends up determining the way he moves.

Honer captures the play's shifting moods and clashing currents, Martin Ledwith and Jamie Lee neatly differentiating between Gould's smooth confidence and Fox's wild rushes of exaltation at wealth and liberation in one. Rachael Hayden has a contrasting, legato quiet confidence. It does, though, play down any complexity of motive in Karen, making the play a more straightforward morality. Yet it's still one that fizzes angrily at the climactic, sharp-toothed finale.

Gould: Martin Ledwith
Fox: Jamie Lee
Karen: Rachael Hayden

Director: Chris Honer
Designer: Dawn Allsopp
Lighting: James Farncombe
Sound: Paul Gregory
Voice coach: Sally Hague
Fight director: Renny Krupinski

2006-06-02 17:08:24