The Mamet Repertory American Theater Company
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There’s a little Mamet gazing going on in the playwright’s native Chicago, too. American Buffalo ran at Steppenwolf last winter, Steep Theatre will mount Lakeboat next winter, and right now Oleanna and Speed-the-Plow are playing in rotating rep at American Theater Company.
Not that it’ll be pleasant. I’ve found these particular plays hard to watch in the past, but Oleanna was always especially excruciating. An almost scientific demonstration of how to wreck a life, the hour-long piece follows two interactions between a middle-aged university professor, John, and one of his students, Carol, who’s come to him because she feels lost in his class.
The power of craft is on full view in Snyder’s cast. Nicole Lowrance is at once transparent and maddeningly opaque as Carol and Karen. Lance Baker is wily as Charlie Fox, making full use of his uncanny ability to ally himself with the audience. And Darrell Cox is just plain something. Snapping his fingers for attention as shaggy John, trying to maintain focus while his sexual quarry bores him as slick Bobby, Cox gives a pair of profound and enlivening performances.
