Speed-The-Plow

at the Gladstone

Speed-The-Plow

By David Mamet

Directed by Teri Loretto-Valentik

Set costumes and sound design by Ivo Valentik

Lighting designed by David Magladry

CAST:

John Muggleton as Bobby Gould

Chris Ralph as Charlie Fox

Kyla Gray as Karen.

Reviewed by Jamie Portman 

Hollywood power brokers can be so entrenched in their own self-regarding culture that they often have a skewed awareness, not only of the world outside but of what they themselves are really like.

So the set designed by Ivo Valentik for this new Ottawa production of Speed The Plow, David Mamet's corrosive demolition job on the pretensions of industry movers and shakers, seems entirely appropriate to the occasion. It is, in its own way, a thing of bizarre beauty — a marvel of rampaging black and white lines dislocated by odd angles, distorted doorways and a cunningly raked floor — which keeps wreaking havoc with perspective.

Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of this offering from Plosive Productions is its solid sheen of professionalism. The design which greets us when the lights go up is the first piece of evidence. Then, there is the crisp direction of Teri Loretto-Valentik. And finally there are the two lead performances by John Muggleton and Chris Ralph.

Muggleton plays Bobby Gould, a newly promoted studio boss. It's a probing performance — on the surface the image of the cool executive quietly revelling in his new found power, a man comfortably aware that in he's in the business of manufacturing commodities, not art. It's only later that the anxieties and insecurities are brought to the surface — and devastatingly so.

Then there's Charlie Fox, a pushy producer, portrayed with the sweaty intensity of a carny barker by Chris Ralph. He's decided to call in some dues, and persuade his erstwhile friend and colleague to bankroll his new project — a potentially lucrative “safe stinker” full of profitable rape and violence, to which a major star is ready to attach himself if the studio makes up its mind quickly.

Mamet is a playwright who can impose severe demands on his actors — demands which are fully evident in a play in which the profanity of the language really reflects Mamet's own views on the profanity of the mainstream Hollywood culture. But in the remarkable opening scene of Speed The Plow, where Charlie rattles off his pitch and Bobby responds, we're also getting a striking example of Mamet's way with dialogue which is a potent fusion of rhythm, cadence and raw musicality.

This is language capable of grabbing you by the throat. Loretto-Valentik's direction and the performances of these two actors meet the demands of the text right through to the final emotional explosion in the third act.

Mamet is essentially a moralist, offended here by what he perceives as a degraded culture, and although he has worked and profited from the studio system, his contempt for it can be palpable. With the protagonists of Speed The Plow cheerfully conceding that their business is “a sinkhole of slime and depravity,” it would be an aberration for them to seek out more worthy material. When it comes to the allure of prison violence against the alternative of a glum cautionary tract about nuclear holocaust, there's really no contest — no contest, that is, until Bobby develops a lust for his temporary secretary (Kyla Gray) and flatters her pretensions to intellectuality by asking her to read the armageddon material and give her opinion.

This leads to a violent final-act confrontation with Charlie screaming betrayal — not only of himself but of the hallowed doctrines of mass-market film-making. Yes, art is ill-served in the world of this play — but not in this admirable production.

A word about newcomer Kyla Gray who plays the secretary. She's still growing into the role, and although does seem to understand her character, she needs to relax more. Nevertheless, she should take comfort in the fact that her work is infinitely preferable to Madonna's immature, sophomoric, inept performance on Broadway in 1988.

Jamie Portman

Freelance critic based in Ottawa

Ottawa, 10 Octobre, 2011

Reviewed by Maja Stefanovska

I’m going to be completely honest here. David Mamet’s play, Speed-the-Plow, left me a bit confused. It definitely lives up to the hype - a funny, fast-paced satire full of language that would make those of the more consevative persuasion blush.  It exposes the shallowness of the movie industry with tongue-in cheek, crass honesty. Bobby Gould, the newly-appointed head of production at a studio is presented with an automatic winner of a prison film by one of his friends, Charlie Fox. However, before they can pitch the idea to the head boss, Bobby has an encounter with his young temp, Karen. Her passion for a novel by “some Eastern Sissy” writer he pushes on her has him questioning his life and morals. What happens at the end shall remain for the viewer to discover, but the battle lines are clearly drawn between Hollywood’s status quo and artistic, “meaningful” art.

Oh, if it were only that simple. The confusion arises from the temp herself. While you want to be on her side, championing the cause of meaningful art, it’s awfully hard when what she says sounds like gibberish most of the time. Let’s just say that in real life, this girl would be one of your over-eager, over-intellectual friends you could only see once every couple of months. The book she champions is about the end of the world, but all the audience hears are “we are afraid to be alone!” and other such snippets that, without a context, don’t make much sense.

 Thank goodness the production did not leave any confusion in its wake. In a word, it was great. Chris Ralph was convincing as the pushy and desperate Charlie, but the real star was John Muggleton, whose Bobby managed to completely embody both the self-sure businessman and the conflicted person. It was such a pleasure to watch an actor not only speak with sounds, but with the body as well. Muggleton’s every move was calculated to make the Bobby more believable and he found many shades in the character - pride, confusion, anger and decisiveness.

Ivo Valentik’s set was well crafted with a shiny, futuristic simplicity. Full of silver and simple lines, it practically screamed late-80s corporate pizzazz. Indeed, the set was its own character, mirroring the two men’s ambition while clashing Karen’s quiet thoughtfulness. Valentik’s set worked well with the storyline, transcending the background and coming alive in its own light. The costumes also held a vaguely 80s twinge, as Bobby’s suspenders can attest.

 Director Teri Loretto-Valentik puts the show together well. She presents us with a modern story with echoes of the not-so-distant past. Speed-the-Plow comes off as anything but dated however. The megalomania and vast excess we associate with the 80s are still very rampant, especially in an industry like Holloywood. The production highlights this at every turn, making the story still very relevant.

 Ottawa, Maja Stefanovska

6 Octobre, 2011

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reviewed by Alvina Ruprecht

The collaboration between SevenThirty productions and Plosive Productions, aimed at keeping The Gladstone  functioning as a viable performance space since the departure of the Great Canadian Theatre Company to its present location, is definitely bearing fruit. Plosive production’s first show  of the season, Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet, shows that this company is certainly up to the challenge of maintaining a good level of professional theatre and we can now say, especially after The 39 Steps, that this new collaboration between  Gladstone, SevenThirty and Plosive is going to give us excellent theatre.
  
David Mamet’s play, first produced in 1988 with Madonna playing the single feminine role, has lost none of its bite, its irreverence -  to put it mildly -  its  male capitalist energy, and the power of its dialogue that shoots back and forth as though the actors were riddling each other with machine gun spray. Director Teri Loretto-Valentik has captured  the high powered  rhythm of Mamet’s intense exchanges.

From the very first moment that  Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox find themselves in that ultra-sophisticated Hollywood office, their verbal confrontation becomes the centre of attention. Sentences are clipped off before they end, or reduced to a word that replaces a whole paragraph. There's no room for pauses or silence. Words fill the vacant spaces showing us how Mamet’s speech is essentially a panic stricken strategy for maintaining human contact without really communicating any ideas.

Bob Gould, a recently promoted film executive, played by John Muggleton, is convinced by his long time loyal pal, Chuck Fox (Chris Ralph) to try to get the producer of his film company to produce a violent mindless script called Prison, only because a famous actor wants to work with Chuck. The two friends know that this deal will make them rich, because Prison is the kind of film that puts “rear ends on seats” and in this business where a film is a commodity, it's the only thing that matters.  

When  the temporary secretary, Karen (Kyla Gray), brings in the coffee, the misogynous and cynical Chuck bets Bob he couldn’t get her to sleep with him, only because she really “likes” him.  Suddenly the plot twists as Bob accepts the bet, using a “sissy” novel he is supposed to read for a possible film, as a way of attracting Karen into his apartment that night. From that moment on, Bob is torn between his  long-time friend and  this  “new”  presence in his life that seems to have  transformed him deeply.

Bob’s encounter with Karen begins as a session of raw seduction as Karen explains her passionate reaction to the book about Radioactivity and the Depravity of Humanity that was never supposed to be taken seriously as a film. Their discussion fills the cynical film executive’s head with ideas of purity, and goodness, and even the strange idea of making good movies for artistic reasons. For Chuck, of course, film making is only a means to an end, opening  doors to wealth and power and all those important things which he deserves in life. The confrontation takes place as the struggling triangle is set up in a series of parallel confrontations, as Karen appears to become Chuck’s alter ego.  Mamet’s writing is masterful as it propels the play along at a furious pace.   

Nothing is ever totally clear in Mamet’s theatre. Oleana showed us, for example that  the author’s relationship with this girl who accuses her  professor of harassment, remains ambiguous  right to the end. In Speed -the- PLow, Mamet eviscerates all the goodwill  from these creatures caught up in greed and self-gratification, creating  a world devoid of any possibility of generosity  and humanity. When Karen asks “why”  they do what they do, the race grinds to a halt for a few seconds. Neither of the men can find a clear answer, even though Bob actually gets a glimpse of something  that might change that. But all hopes are soon dashed to pieces in the final and very powerful  20 minutes of the play.  

These shifts in tone, these constant confrontations carried off  in speech patterns that almost have us panting for relief, put great demands on the actors.  Kyla Gray as Karen didn't quite capture the mixture of innocence and aggressive sexuality that barely hides the ambitious streak behind her whole performance.  She was simply too nice, and although she makes us believe how much she is moved by the novel about radiation and the end of the world that was only used as bait, she never really captures the rest of her complex character that works like a spider’s web entrapping all those around her.

On the other hand, the duo of John Muggleton as Bob Gould, and Chris Ralph as Chuck Fox, unfolded like a most perfectly orchestrated piece of music, with moments of greatness, especially in the first act when Chuck announces his thrilling news about the film star who wants to work with them. They both see gold glittering before their eyes in a manic performance was actually thrilling to watch.

Director Loretto shows very clearly how this relationship develops, how Chuck, at first the obsequious loyal friend and good pal who understands everything, changes into a vulgar, misogynous creature invading Bob’s private life, squashing every ounce of decency and genuine artistic instinct that dares to remain in the executive’s head. Chuck eventually evolves into a vulgar and evil presence, the antithesis of the apparently pure and generous  Karen,  both of whom are tugging away at Bob’s conscience as though the devil and the angel were tearing him apart. The struggle reaches near allegorical heights as it prepares us for the terrible truth which erupts at the end.

Chuck plays out his disbelief in the third act in a strong scene where he appears not to have heard what Bob has just announced about his choice of plays.  Chris Ralph as Chuck might have expressed more real anger fuelled by fear since his whole life seems to be collapsing around him. On the other hand, John Muggleton's performance as Bob Gould was absolutely impeccable all the way through.  One has the impression that the character is so deeply part of the actor’s temperament that every single gesture, no matter how insignificant,  reveals some deeper truth about  this film mogul who goes through a powerful transformation, and then must finally regain his composure for reasons you will have to discover. Muggleton, whom we usually associate with comedy, shows us the high level of his professionalism as an actor.

Ivo Valentik’s set design is one of the most beautiful and transformative structures I have seen on a small independent stage in this city for a long time. Fused with baroque-like sense of split perspectives as it thrusts out through the proscenium arch, its site lines are extended back, creating a feeling of enormous depth beyond the back of the stage. The white scaffolding that outlines the contemporary structure of this Hollywood office building, along with the transparent chairs and white tilted tables, all work in a strangely expressionistic manner. The distorted décor, supported by ultra-modern glass and steel  frames where huge window spaces open up  on all sides, as well as Valentik’s sound design, evoke the fast paced glamour and instant gratification that propels all these characters.  

Speed -The - Plow is a beautiful production of a play that Director Loretto has kept in high gear and seething with energy.  With such momentum, one wouldn't even miss the 20 minute intermission if they decided to remove it...

 Speed-The-Plow plays from October 5 to October 22 at The Gladstone Theatre. 910 Gladstone Ave. Box Office: 613-233-4523 or visit www.thegladstone.ca.

This review first appeared on www.scenechanges.com

 Alvina Ruprecht (, an Ottawa based freelance theatre critic)

Sunday, October 9, 2011