On the Rocks: Glengarry Glen Ross

With a slight pop, my fortune cookie leapt out of its packet and into the lap of the person in front of me. It proceeded to hide beneath his seat. […]



With a slight pop, my fortune cookie leapt out of its packet and into the lap of the person in front of me. It proceeded to hide beneath his seat. I mumbled an apology, and he passed me both my recently freed floor-cookie and a fresh one from the seat adjacent. My first fortune was: ‘You will be taking on fresh vitality during the next few weeks.’ I haven’t yet. My second fortune was, ‘Someone is watching you smile.’ Creepy, but it was a possibility, because I thoroughly enjoyed the production of Glengarry Glen Ross that followed.


The thing about reviewing student plays, as opposed to movies, is that you have to imagine each little barbed criticism burying itself into the heart of someone you might see the next day. Whether they’re poring over a passage in the library or doing a sweaty rave dance in the Lizard, when you see them you’ll know that you’ve done something to make their day a bit worse. If you are like me, you may also imagine them punching you in the mouth. I have worried that this fear, as well as my love of biscuits that predict the future, might be coercing me into an overly positive write-up. Upon further reflection, they’re not.


Oh, if you’re wondering what the fortune cookies are all about, it’s because—like my family’s Christmas dinners—the first act of David Mamet’s Pulitzer-winning play is set in a Chinese restaurant. However, I have to admit that Chinese restaurant Christmas has a bit more swearing than Mamet’s play.


Profanity plays such a big role in any production of Glengarry Glen Ross that ‘fuck’ is practically an eighth character. Apparently the cast of the movie version referred to the film as ‘Death of a Fuckin’ Salesman’. It’s also why this is such a hard show to perform. No murders, no sex, no big set pieces, not even much of a plot, what carries this thing? Nothing but talk, that’s what. Glengarry Glen Ross is all about the rhythms and patterns of speech, in which expletives play a key role, and watching good actors talk up a storm is totally engrossing. I love the film version—when I’m sad I just watch Alec Baldwin’s speech on Youtube, and the gloomies go away—but that’s because it’s just a string of amazing actors giving amazing performances. The first act of the stage version is really just three long continuous monologues, occasionally interrupted by a second character. It has to be completely smooth and expertly timed to remain both interesting and natural. If you get that wrong, you’ve got nothing but a highly child-inappropriate puppet show on your hands.


Well, I’m glad to report that our actors got it very right. Lorenzo De Boni’s Levene was coarser and slimier than I was expecting, but I think his portrayal suits the dialogue extremely well, and keeps Levene from becoming too mawkish or self-pitying. I thought Frazer Hadfield and Stephen Kelly played off one another brilliantly, and while I was worried that Kelly’s Aaronow would just end up being a series of Alan Arkin impressions, his good timing added a lot of humour when it was needed most. There were a few missteps. Alex Levine’s Williamson felt unnecessarily stilted at times, and he missed an opportunity to really shine with the classic ‘Go to lunch!’ lines. Sebastian Carrington-Howell’s Lingk sometimes reminded me more of a lost child, or someone who urgently needed to use the bathroom, than a man at his wit’s end. But these are only quibbles. Their performances were consistent and usually successful, and certainly took nothing away from the play’s full effect. Yet even if the rest of the cast had been bin bags filled with golden syrup, it still would have been worth going just to see Conor McKeown’s Richard Roma. Vulgarly poetic and compellingly satanic, McKeown manages to conjure the presence of Pacino without slipping into full on ‘Hoo-ah!’ Scent of a Woman territory. It’s just a damned-good performance; he pronounces ‘thieves’ like ‘teaves’, it’s great, go see it!


Overall, Jasper Lauderdale’s Glengarry Glen Ross is an extremely professional show with a stupendous cast. It is also an excellent weapon in your arsenal against any of your jerk friends who complain that student theatre is always pretentious, shoddy, or boring.


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