Mamet's Buffalo is a dud

I read American Buffalo today. I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't hate it either. It left me unmoved.

I am starting to become aware of a masculine bias to theatrical history in a way that is almost becoming a physical recoil. I could tell from the very first page that this play was not going to communicate anything of relevance to me.  

At a very basic level, you could say it is blokey, but I like Glengarry Glen Ross and The Cryptogram so it is not Mamet I don't like per se. This play, however, almost seems to go out of its way to alienate female reception.

All of the information I have looked at on the web talk about the relationships between the men, loyalty, and belief systems.  There are characters in this play, though, which are never seen or heard, but are absolutely crucial to the the story. Fletcher (although he is more of a object than a real person), and Ruthie and Grace.

Ruthie and Grace are mentioned constantly throughout the play and appear to be pivotal, but they are despised and derided although it is never made clear why. They are lesbians apparently, but that doesn't seem especially relevant to the ideas under discussion. For me this is the great weakness of the play despite it's brilliance in technical play writing. (It also seem to me to be the greatest weakness of all the writings and analysis associated with the play).

As with his other works, this play was touted and lauded but I can't help wondering how much of that was true because the world - especially the arts world - was an inviolable patriarchy. It intrigues me to ponder whether this play would have seen the light of day in the slightly less gender biased scene of the modern era.

Viktoree-us

Here is the 10 min play I wrote for the 24 hour experience last night.

VIKTOREE-US

Written by Samsara

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACTOR 1: Referee, race caller 1, Judge, choreographer, parent

ACTOR 2: Strong wrestler, race caller 3, defendent 1, good dancer, sibling 2

ACTOR 3: Weak wrestler, race caller 2, defendent 2, bad dancer, sibling 1

Scene 1

2 actors doing slow motion wrestling/boxing/footy physical montage. Sound of crowds cheering in the background, a referee keeps separating them.  One keeps being knocked down or punched by the other.  It is always the same one who falls/doubles over.  Ends with a TKO and blow of whistle.

Scene 2

All three actors stand in a row with binoculars and follow the race together.  All movements should be in unison. They should be at a height (on a riser?) and looking down on the race.

RACE CALLER 3: (as they are getting in position – very informal) It’s a lovely view from up here, isn’t it?

RACE CALLER 2: Yes, it is. We should be able to see everything! Oh, I seem to have my strap caught on something...

RACE CALLER 3: Shhh, we’re about to start.

RC 2 fumbles and only just gets their binoculars ready in time.

RACE CALLER 1: (formal race calling voice) It’s a sunny outlook, but the grass is wet and the course is a slippery slope as we all know. The zygotes are in starting positions and mitosis is about to commence. They’re off and racing!  Snookums and Punkin surge through the pack as they wobble on their little legs. They are neck and neck as they take their first baby steps, although Snookums seems to be taking the lead as the mouth opens. Could this be a first word? Won’t that mother be as pleased as punch! 

RACE CALLER 2: And now were on the NAPLAN bend. The pack is catching up but Snookums aces it.  Poor Punkin appears to have oversteered. Multiplication tables can be a killer. There goes the schools standings. Funding will be cut!

RACE CALLER 3: This is where it gets really scary. Anything could happen in the dating chicane. Snookums is looking very chi chi, but Punkin just can’t seem to get a conversation started. You can see their hearts pounding as they try to negotiate those tricky crushes but it is Snookums who has found the inside run.  Looks like Punkin will be going home alone - again.

ALL THREE: Here we are at Career Straight, the final leg!

RC2:  You would think Snookums has all the advantages right now.

RC3: Yes. Looks, grades, personality. Snookums is a real winner!

RC2: Hasn’t won yet!

RC1: Going on form you would have to say the money is on Snookums though.

RC2: What happens to Punkin if Snookum wins...again?

RC3: What happens to all of life’s losers?

Scene 3

Judge is on riser, defendendents on floor.

JUDGE: You stand before me because a great wrong has been committed and it is my job to determine who is responsible and who owes a debt to society.

DEFENDENT 1: Your honour, may I speak in my defense?

JUDGE: You may.

DEFENDENT 1: Thank you. Before I go on though, wasn’t that a lovely dinner at Amy and Joe’s last Thursday? I especially loved those little canape’s. You seemed to be enjoying yourself.

JUDGE: This is not the time or place for that discussion. It is my job to be impartial... (but yes, what were those little red things on the crackers?)

DEFENDENT 1: I think they were  (gets cut off)

DEFENDENT 2: Wait a minute. Do you two know each other? That’s not fair. How am I supposed to get a fair trial?

JUDGE: Are you doubting my impartiality?

DEFENDENT 2: Yes!...um... no, your honour.

JUDGE: We’ll move on then. As long as it’s alright with you of course...

DEFENDENT 2:  (mumbles) yes...

DEFENDENT 1: As I was saying, your honour. I merely provided the structure and resources for the job to be done. The architecture, if you will. It was not me personally involved in the actions under discussion.

DEFENDENT 2: Your honour, I was merely acting under instruction.

JUDGE: But you did it anyway.

DEFENDENT 2: I didn’t have a choice.

JUDGE: Of course you did. You could have said no.

DEFENDENT 2: But I would have lost my job!

DEFENDENT 1: That outcome hasn’t changed.

JUDGE: Be quiet both of you. (bangs gavel) I have considered all the evidence in front of me regarding this matter and I find that it was the responsibility of the person whose actions caused this catastrophe, and not the person who gave the order and supplied the ways and means. Sentencing will take place tomorrow morning.

Scene  4

2 dancers learning dance steps, one instructor. Instructor counts and keeps stopping them, yelling at dancer 2, and banging the floor with a stick to keep time. Dancer 1 is perfect, and gets to sit aside as Dancer 2 is drilled over and over. Eventually Dancer 2 learns the steps and then all three become dancers and dance whilst singing this song.

I did not sleep a wink

And so I surge ahead

As others stop to think

I rush blindly instead

The peasants shall be crushed

The weak are ever blind

Their protests shall be hushed

As filthy wealth I find

Scene 5

Two people sitting on each side of a hospital bed, looking at a TV screen. A body is lying on the bed asleep. The sound of a football game on the TV.

SIBLING 1: You always were the favourite

SIBLING 2: Rubbish. You were the one getting out of doing stuff. I never got a break. “You won’t learn anything if you don’t do it yourself’.

SIBLING 1: Oh please! Who was the one who went to University – all fees paid?

SIBLING 2: You didn’t want to go to University. You hated school!

SIBLING 1:  Well I didn’t suck up to the teachers like you.

SIBLING 2: It’s called doing homework. You might know that if you tried it some time.

SIBLING 1: It’s all useless stuff anyway.

The person on the bed starts moving restlessly. An ECG monitor is heard and gets faster as this scene progresses.

SIBLING 2: You’re just saying that because you were too stupid to understand any of it.

SIBLING 1: What good is it anyway? You can’t use that stuff in real life.

SIBLING 2: Well, let’s see... I have a job, a car, I don’t live at home with my parents...do I need to go on?

SIBLING 1: Fuck off! Everyone was always on your side. The first to walk, to talk, to date. People just liked you better.

SIBLING 2: Yes they did. And do you know why?

SIBLING 1: Because you are a slimy suck up with a brown nose and a silver tongue?

SIBLING 2: No, you ignorant amoeba. It is because I care.

SIBLING 1: Are you saying I don’t care?

SIBLING 2: Yes. You laze about taking the easy way out.  You put no effort into things. You are happy being at the bottom of the pile and that is where you will always stay.

PARENT: (sits up and blows whistle loudly). ENOUGH! When will you both understand that it’s not a competition? It’s true that you (indicating S2) have a higher education, and it’s true that you (indicating S1) have a knack with your hands and can fix just about anything without reading a manual.  You are both talented and important to how the world functions. We need you both equally, just for different things. I love you both and I value you both just the same. Now kiss and make up and go in to the world as a team, not rivals. Go on, shake hands.

They shake and then start to walk out together. S2 turns back suddenly.

SIBLING 2: But I get the house when you die, right?

SIBLING 1: What? Wait a moment. It’s a 50/50 split isn’t it?

SIBLING 2: The house is coming to me and you get the car and the furniture.

SIBLING 1: That’s not fair!

They continue arguing. Meanwhile the parent has a heart attack and dies. The cardiac machine emits a long single tone. They pause for a moment, look at the body and then start arguing about the will again as they walk off. 

No one ever does it

Hello world, it has been a long time between drinks, hasn't it? So much has changed over the last how ever many month it has been. The big change, though, is that I no longer have the website Planet Art.

I am embarking on a new adventure and I do not have enough energy to pay enough attention to both, so the website had to go.  Why such a big decision? Well, it is because I am finally about to commence the Masters in Writing for Performance!  We are in orientation week right now, and as of Monday the real journey will begin.

I have been chaffing with a desperate urge to get started, but today I realised I don't have to wait for classes to begin in order to begin my studies.  Yesterday we got our course outlines and it occurred to me this afternoon that I actually needed to start doing the reading to be prepared for classes! Kind of obvious I know, but it really hadn't pierced by brain until now.

Luckily the Uni Melb library is phenomenal and you don't even have to borrow a hard copy book, you can read an e-version on line!  So much easier.

So today I read Hedda Gabler which will be one of the reference texts for a unit called Dramaturgy, Text, and Performance.  Hamlet is also on the list, but I have read and seen that play quite a few times so I am not going to bother refreshing.

I was surprised to realise I hadn't read Hedda Gabler before, but it's true.  Overall it is a good play. Not Ibsen's best, but some really fascinating characters and ideas in it.  I have heard it referred to as a play about the repression of women, and to a certain degree that is true, but for me it is more about people not doing what they say they are going to do. There is something of that in Tesman's book which has not yet been written. It is in the threat of him not getting the appointment he had been promised. It is in Loevborg's lack of ability to maintain sobriety, or even to commit suicide. It is even in Hedda's marriage.  For me, the telling moment is the final statement in the play when Judge Bracks says something along the lined of 'noone ever really does it'.

The next time you find yourself saying "if this happens, I will......" ask yourself if you really mean it.  The answer is most likely no.