Renowned playwright and screenwriter David Mamet spares nothing in this blistering critique of politicians, particularly American progressives. The Secret Knowledge is an entertaining and surprising telling of Mamet's ideological awakening, and he writes with the fierce urgency of a recent conver...
Excerpt from a reflection:"It is very plain in reading the play that Mamet has given almost no stage direction; he limits the creation of dramatic tension to the field of dialogue, forcing the audience to take any meaning from only the words that are spoken and the messages that may or may not be...
Imagine an Enlightenment thinker, sitting on his drawing room chair sometime in the 18th century, wets his pants so hard at the idea of the mind-body dichotomy he enters a time loop directly into post-Stanislavski America, somehow becoming a playwright in the process. He would be David Mamet, and...
First staged in Chicago in 1975, this gritty drama by David Mamet explores issues of business, friendship, and loyalty among three members of the urban underclass. Donnie is a middle-aged owner of a junk shop, Bobby is his young protégé, apparently a recovering addict who idolizes Donnie and wan...
In regards to the plot, a movie producer named Gould is debating with his friend and colleague the importance of money versus art. Though the two agree that it is "art" that is most important, it is clear that money is what rules both of their lives. The rising action occurs when Gould bets his f...
THE CRYPTOGRAM. (1995). David Mamet. ***.tI was half-way through the first act before I began to realize what might be going on in this drama. You know Mamet and his ways…you gotta be there. Mamet has a style that is vibrant. It is like listening to real people talking on the street. Chara...
I was, for some unknown reason, moved by and sort of obsessed with the film "About Last Night" when I was a kid. For better or worse (probably worse), this flawed but still unique and underrated Brat-Packer film, set in 80's Chicago - shaped my ideas of adult sexuality. The way Demi Moore (flat a...
Very good play on the orginal Faustus. It uses the tricks that Mamet loves. It has a hidden unread book, an idea that we sort of understand and imagine its implcations. Faustus makes his choices and has the same aims as the orginal Fautus but Mamet looks at the implciation of choice and decisi...
Mamet, David. GOLDBERG STREET: Short Plays & Monologues. (1985). **. In his introduction to this volume, Mamet explains that these short pieces were written in between his major efforts, especially when he got to some blockage. These off-the-cuff works kept him busy until his Muse came back to hi...