SPEED THE PLOW Reviewed
SPEED THE PLOW
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle
The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) of San Francisco is currently presenting David Mamet's hilarious comedy SPEED-THE-PLOW.
While many of Mamet's comedies—AMERICAN BUFFALO, SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO, GLENGARY GLENN ROSS, THE WATER ENGINE—range from midnight-dark to abandoned-coal-mine-dark, this is one Mamet play that remains absurdly funny and will not have you chewing valerian root to get to sleep, reaching for the expired remnants of your Prozac prescription or unraveling your 12-step recovery process.
SPEED-THE-PLOW is a parody of the executive class of the Hollywood film industry: a difficult task given that parody is an exaggeration and Hollywood is already an exaggeration of itself.
Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox (played by Matthew Del Negro and Andrew Polk) are two studio executives; their goals are much the same as our own unspoken goals: to earn mega-money, to acquire mogul-power and use those two accomplishments to have sexual dalliances with people of superlative pulchritude.
Mamet has spent much of his energy criticizing the non-existent ethics and standards of the Hollywood film industry; this play is a souvenir from those heady idealistic days.
In a world of digital cinematography, independent film, and www.youtube.com, such criticism is an anachronism: demanding art from Hollywood is like asking Chef Boy-R-Dee to make authentic Italian, Casa Lingua Tuscan Raviolli or asking Little Caesar to make a real Margherita.
If 90 minutes of the Paramount's Monadnok or 90 minutes of Columbia's Torch Lady or 90 minutes of Warner Brothers' roaring Leo could pack audiences into the theaters and later recycle as DVDs, then that is what Hollywood would distribute: no cast, no set, no crew, no script, no payroll.
Ars Gratia Artis is a just motto; get real: it is not a business practice nor a survival technique.
If you want art in a movie theater study your popcorn box, admire the graffiti in the restroom or attend movies that are distributed by major studios not filmed by major studios.
Bobby and Charlie are the apotheosis of Hollywood sleaze, only they are honest in a sense.
To keep from losing track of their priorities, they constantly remind themselves and the people around them that they are whores.
Bobby is nearly too honest: when Karen (played by Jessi Campbell), a curvaceous temporary secretary, pitches an idea for a screen play to him, he feigns interest in order to improve his chances of closing escrow with her.
Instead of remaining safely remote, Bobby drops his guard and his better judgement, and decides to follow through on Karen's idea.
But alas, good friends are willing to beat you up in order to protect you from your noble instincts and Charlie Fox proves himself to be such a friend.
SPEED THE PLOW was written in 1988 and SWIMMING WITH SHARKS was released in 1994; the similarities are uncanny; but hey, this is show business not art.
For an evening of laughter, get on your computer and tap in act-sf.org or poke 415-749-2ACT into your cell phone-but not while you are driving.
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