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American Buffalo
by David Mamet
| List Price: |
$13.00 |
Unavailable for
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Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press
"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times) A junk shop. Three small-time crooks plot to carry out the midnight robbery of a coin collection. In the hours leading up to the heist, friendship becomes the victim in a conflict between loyalty and business."This play is a parable about the US - not in the journalistic way...but quietly, stealthily, with all the rich interior organisation of a true work of art" (Observer)
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Characters not plot |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I have always enjoyed this play. I saw it in NYC in its first run on Broadway, then saw a production at the Berkeley Rep some years later. I watched the filmed version recently. This is (as are many of DM's works) a character study. The plot is just a vehicle to give the characters something to talk about. There are no great truths revealed but there are tremendous depths to the characters. This is an actor's play, full of great dialog exchanges. For the non-theatrical person it plays better than it reads.
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| Mamet Hits a Single |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Years ago I saw this play on the Great White Way. The set was fantastic with the busiest, most cluttered junk shop imaginable, packed to the gills with all sorts of stuff. The play itself was and is a very slight effort, and I cannot understand why it's being revived for the 2008-2009 Broadway season. There's very little to it. Three men are talking and talking and pausing. As in McDonagh's and Pinter's plays, we are not dealing with rocket scientists here. Mamet is the poor man's Pinter. Both come out of the absurdist tradition, but Mamet often seems to me to be hitting first base hits that never go anywhere and certainly don't score.
Donny runs the junk shop; Bobby is his helper; and Teach is a very small time crook. The title refers to a valuable American buffalo nickel. Donny doesn't really know the real value of the nickel that has been bought from him. A crime is hatched to steal a coin collector's trove. Should another man, Fletcher, be included? Should they go in with a gun? These are real small time crooks who don't have a clue.
The absurdist dialogue involves inanity, non-sequiturs, and nonsense. Mamet is good at sussing out conversational rhythms and the way language is often only symbolic among friend, more evocative than communicative.
In one exchange Teach says, "According to me, yes, I am the person it's usually according to when I'm talking. Have you noticed this?" The play is as much about language as it is about the action of the play. The audience finds great comedy in the circumlocution of the absurdist dialogue. Listening to dumbbells arguing about nonsense can be very funny. It's sort of pointless, a lesson in futility.
As usual in plays things go awry toward the end. Much goes unspoken in this play, and the audience can draw inferences as to what happened offstage.
There are subtexts in the play. What did Bobby do while he was gone? Is there a relationship between Don and Bobby? Things slip out as these characters talk about seemingly straightforward matters. The shop set is unbelievably cluttered, yet the dialogue is simple and uncluttered.
When I first saw and heard the play performed, I thought it was riddled with profanity; now it seems quite tame. But worthy of a revival? It's a play that has little to convey and essentially goes nowhere. Count me out of the revival.
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| stark, harsh, broken American dreamers.. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Mamet is one of America's finest playwrights while "American Buffalo" might not stand up to universal appeal as much as "Glengarry" or "Speed the Plow" I consider it one of his best works. The language and characters are not idealistic but harsh and real as the Chicago neighborhood it takes place in. Mamet writes of broken characters and the broken American dream, read the play then rent and watch the production starring Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz or go watch a local theatrical production when it's done right and done by good actors it is truly an American classic.
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| Too obscure. |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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"American Buffalo" was recommended to me by a fellow thespian because he thought this was raw and fantastic. It is indeed raw, but not at all fantastic. The dialogue is very choppy and I felt out of the loop with it - as if I missed some great detail. Perhaps this is a play that needs to be enjoyed when seen performed, rather than just read. I do not recommend.
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| Not for the Weak |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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It's unfortunate that the first Amazon review of Mamet's brilliant work is by Mr. C.B.Liddell, a pompous, pontificating Brit who doesn't understand the play. I'm not sticking up for Mamet: his works are very hit and miss, and even the hits are an acquired taste (like Monty Python), I'm just standing up for a damn good play.
One of the problems with American Buffalo is that its language and setting (low-income Chicago in the 70's) are unfamiliar and difficult to appreciate for many people, but it's loved by many actors and writers in the same way that musicians appreciate "musician's music." Also, like Glengary Glen Ross, it can be emotionally violent and offensive for some people.
Still, a great work of art, in my humble opinion. Don't pass up the chance to see it performed by talented actors who know and love the play!
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