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Dueling
Critics,
Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman, recommend seeing
Glengarry Glen Ross on WBEZ 91.5 FM, Chicago Public Radio's program,
Eight Forty-Eight, 8/19/2008
Listen to complete segment (Scroll to 6:43 min for Glengarry): http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=27794
or listen to the Glengarry segment here:
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T.I.C. TOP LIST
The Highest Rated
Shows In Chicago
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10
things to do this weekend
By: Margaret Littman July 24, 2008
RE-IMAGINE.
Redtwist Theatre offers a gender twist on David Mamet's "GLENGARRY GLEN
ROSS," with some of the formerly male characters played as women. July
25 and July 26, 8 p.m.; July 26, 3 p.m. Tickets are $27 - $30. 1044 W.
Bryn Mawr Ave., (773) 728-7529, www.redtwist.org.
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On the
Town July 25, 2008
This week--Chris
Jones
Friday
Glengarry Glen Ross: Ssh! Don't tell Mamet. Redtwist is producing a
"gender-blind" production of the famous drama of stressed-out salesmen
living the underbelly of the American Dream. Brian Parry plays Shelley
Levene, Erin Shelton is John Williamson, Jacqueline Grandt is Ricky
Roma and Jeff Helgeson is James Lingk. Through Aug. 24 by Redtwist
(formerly Actors Workshop), 1044 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.; $22-$30,
773-728-7529.
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Highly Recommended
Glengarry
Glen Ross
by Jack Hafferkamp
EDGE Great Lakes Regional Editor
Tuesday Jul 29, 2008
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Glengarry Glen Ross is probably the best
known of David Mamet’s dramatic explorations of human nature, largely
due to its 1992 film that featured a starry cast (Al Pacino, Alec
Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey. Ed Harris, Alan Arkin).
Set in a mean, competitive, probably moribund real estate office,
"Glengarry" is about how people under pressure at a survival-level deal
with it. By turns funny, zingy, sardonic and horrifyingly accurate. the
is like an animated Chuck Close painting. The bigger picture is about
the smallness of us all.
Working in the shadow of its film’s cast (as well as the recent,
Tony-winning Broadway revival with Alan Alda, Liev Schreiber and Tom
Wopat) could be intimidating for a cast of seven in a 35-seat
storefront on Bryn Mawr Av. But the
ensemble taking it on at the Redtwist Theatre is more than up to the
task of breathing fresh life into a well-used drama. All the
snap in its snap-shot image of us is there, all the photos we’d rather
throw away than put in the family album.
For this magic to work onstage the same way Mamet imagined it, the cast
has to be completely believable. We in the audience have to feel we
know someone like them all. This
group brings it off from the opening bell. Brian Parry in a
Jeff-Award-caliber performance as the Shelly Levine character manages
to channel through Jack Lemmon to the source. Jacqueline Grandt as Ricky Roma
is strong and sharp as the hot-shot salesman.
Eric Hoffmann as Dave Moss is,
with apologies, a very convincing prick. He has down the part of the
handsome knuckle dragger who growls and threatens a lot. Erin Shelton pulls off a nice
mixture of the office newbie who makes up for lack of knowledge with
the soul of a barracuda.
The twist in the production, as you may have gathered, is that four of
the characters are women in roles Mamet wrote for men. With this cast
it works. Debra Rodkin is fab as the
weak-willed George Aaronow.
The back flip on the twist is that the women have to do it with the
original men’s names. To get Mamet’s permission for the production,
Redtwist was told via Mamet’s agent that "Mr. Mamet does not dictate
the gender of the characters, as long as not a single word of his text
is changed."
And maybe this is why I am a humble reviewer and not a playwright, but
it seems to me Mamet is missing a very interesting way to make the play
more relevant, especially in the aftershocks of the home-loan financial
earthquake. There are lots of women in the hurting real estate offices
I hear about.
Part of what makes
the Redtwist adaptation so satisfying is that the women do a great job
of playing it down the middle, part guy, part woman, so that once you
digest the name game, you don’t care.
My only suggestions would be for Brian Parry to tone it down ever so
lightly, not in intensity but just in volume. It’s just a little
too...loud. And for Redtwist hatchling Filonna Thomas, in a mostly very
nice debut turn, to give it more "seething" as she is being ignored by
Ricky Roma.
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4
stars Critic's Rating
Christopher Piatt
Time Out Chicago / Issue 179 : Jul 31–Aug 6, 2008
Glengarry Glen Ross
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Redtwist Theatre By David Mamet. Dir.
Adam Webster. With Jacqueline Grandt, Eric Hoffmann, Brian Parry, Debra
Rodkin, Erin Shelton.
An arbitrary soul, David Mamet. The implacable hard-ass dramatist who’s
scarcely said a kind public word on any topic is a noted control freak
about his words. Yet when Redtwist Theatre asked for permission to cast
his macho real-estate drama with women in some of the male roles, the
response (via his agent, natch) was, “Mr. Mamet does not dictate the
gender of the characters, as long as not a single word of his text is
changed.”
And so Redtwist has clearance to experiment; in this “gender-blind”
staging, four of the male characters in Mamet’s story of a bungled
office heist are portrayed by female actors. Does the risk pay off? Not
particularly. Does Glengarry Glen
Ross still work like gangbusters? It does indeed.
With actor Brian
Parry in the driver’s seat—his work as desperate huckster Shelly Levene
has thrumming, almost musical syncopation—Adam Webster’s brisk, modest
production takes a straightforward approach to the text. So even
though Jacqueline Grandt’s Ricky Roma is more of a clammy WASP than a
smoldering cigar-butthole, and even though Debra Rodkin plays patsy
George Aaronow as a hysterical soccer mom rather than pathetic fall
guy—neither performance feels in touch with the hardheaded material—all
the actors ultimately get out of the way of the play itself. At the end
of the evening, you can still hear its menacing cadences in your head.
If you’re one of the 23 Americans who understand the recent mortgage
and housing crises, feel free to let us know if this tale of predatory
agents has extra-current relevance. In the meantime, the rest of us can
enjoy the one great female performance: Erin
Shelton plays the ball-busting office manager as an
expressionless totem pole, and, yes, she closes the deal.
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Recommended
Reviewer: Sarah
Terez Rosenblum
Tuesday Jul 29, 2008
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Redtwist Theater's gender-blind
production of David Mamet's ubiquitous "Glengarry Glen Ross" initially
had me worried. Intended as a window into the ruthless, decidedly male
world of sales, GGR seems an unlikely candidate for gender-bending.
While it took a while to acclimate to a scarlet-nailed Richard (the riveting Jacqueline Grandt), and a
sniveling George (Debra Rodkin, surprisingly
well-cast), by the start of the brisk second act, stark
femininity had faded in the face of compelling characters and
methamphetamine-fueled dialogue. This is not to say that questions such
as "Why is Richard talking about being sucked off by a woman while
seducing a male customer who responds by sliding his arm protectively
along the back of Richard's chair?" didn't remain niggling
distractions. However, given the fact that Mamet approved the
production with the caveat that "not a single word of text be altered,"
such an outcome cannot be helped.
As monologues gave way to epithet-laced shouting matches and the
straightforward plot kicked the action up a notch, Adam
Webster's confident direction did justice to Mamet's
rapid-fire script. While each actor
contributed to GGR's testosterone-saturated pace and high-octane
energy, standouts included afore mentioned, pitch-perfect Grandt, Eric Hoffmann's slimy Dave Moss,
and Brian Parry as
desperate old-school salesman, Shelly Levene. While the
insertion of women into an already compelling play may not have been
strictly necessary, in the end it added an interesting dimension to an
old favorite, and took nothing important away.
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Recommended
Tom Williams
Date Reviewed: July
26, 2008
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Powerful Pulitzer
Prize winning Mamet drama
works nicely with a gender-bending cast.
It
is an interesting idea to cast females in David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen
Ross,’ a play that features a testosterone based dialogue of male
in-home salesmen. These ‘closers’ were, in 1984, almost 100% men so
Mamet wrote only men in the play. Redtwist Theatre felt that in today’s
world, many sales agents are women—so why not cast some females? Mamet
wouldn’t allow any changes in the script, therefore, several women have
male names and are referred to as men. In the hands of such excellent
actresses as Jacqueline Grandt (Richard Roma), Debra Rodkin (George
Aaronow), Erin Shelton (John Williamson) and Filonna Thomas (Officer
Baylen), director Adam Webster has cast strong actors worthy of their
roles. This production of “Glengarry Glen Ross” delivers the emotional
impact that Mamet’s intense language featuring a blend of rough
four-letter expletives and salesmen-speak terms like ‘closing’ ‘the
board’ and ‘good leads’ demands.
Mamet
uses one-on-one scenes to establish plot, theme and character.
“Glengarry Glen Ross” features Mamet’s signature style of dialogue
exchanges filled with half sentences, repetition of lines in a fast
paced exchanges that contain vivid lingo together with colorful, often
cynical, references that the immoral hucksters use as bullets to get
their mark to write a check and sign the contract for worthless Florida
land. This fast talking style demands audiences pay attention, but once
engaged, Mamet delivers humor and a deceptively clever structured
semi-whodunit.
We
meet Shelly Levene (the fabulous Brian Parry), the lost
old-time closer who is battling to keep his job after a string of no
sales. Parry
deftly delivers Shelly’s emotional angst that has him begging
for the
premium leads in a last ditch effort to get on ‘the board’ before he
gets fired. Once Shelly closes a deal for $82, 000 (making him a
commission of $12,000)—we witness a terrific scathing verbal attack on
manager Williamson by Shelly. Dave Moss (the smooth Eric Hoffmann)
deftly maneuvers George Aaronow (Debra Rodkin) into becoming the
perpetrator of a scheme to burglarize the sale office in order to steal
the new premium sales leads.
Mamet
has Roma (Jacqueline Grandt in a fine turn)
glibly and indirectly
‘selling’ her mark, Lingk (Jeff Helgeson) over drinks. Act two opens
with the sales office in disarray after the break-in. Each of the sales
folks are interviewed—each verbally abuse both Williamson and Officer
Baylen. Mamet’s plot twists and Shelly’s destruction are effectively
played out with a surprise twist.
This
outstanding cast quite effectively handles Mamet’s bitingly acidic
language with just the proper amount of angst and cynicism. The street
language may offend some. I especially liked Brian Parry, Jacqueline
Grandt and Eric Hoffman’s performances. David Mamet would like this
gender bending production. I know I did.
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Highly Recommended
Women
duke it out in man's world of 'Glengarry'
By Nina Metz | Special to the Chicago Tribune
July 31, 2008 |
The trash-talking desperadoes in David
Mamet's plays are nearly always men—and not just any men, but men as
human sweat stains, their collective efforts like so much testosterone
fogging up the joint.
With this in mind, a grand experiment is playing out at Redtwist
Theatre where a revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross" features a coed
ensemble, and a rather good one at that. The women have arrived—though
only one manages to stake her claim.
Mamet's camp signed off on the concept, providing there be no script
changes. So, on occasion you hear women referring to one another as
"he," or introducing themselves with names like Richard, John or
George. It's not a big deal. Curiously, the female element doesn't
really add or detract from the play itself, which won the Pulitzer in
1984. So you have a couple of saleswomen instead of salesmen pushing
shady land deals—so what?
The story doesn't need to be anything but what it is, and director Adam
Webster keeps the focus clear. The
men are up to the task, particularly Eric Hoffmann, whose
square-jawed cockiness seems just right for the role of Moss—and he has
a nice handle on the Mametspeak.
The simp who runs the office with a less-than-assured managerial touch
is played by Erin Shelton in a strangely dead-eyed performance. Instead
of widening her stance, she's mostly back on her heels when it hits the
fan. Here I think a man might have played it differently—more intent
and aggressive, at least.
The trick is
capturing Mamet's momentum and urgency—and his love for cons and
squirrelly types. May I offer up Exhibit A: Jacqueline Grandt as the wily
Ricky Roma. She gets it all the way, her blond curls aptly reminiscent
of Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction." You even buy it when she refers
to herself as a man. Her charm is smooth like velvet, but this is not a
woman to be messed with, walking the walk and duking it out in a man's
world—and stuff it if you can't take it.
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Highly Recommended
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
WITH A LITTLE RED TWIST
by Ruth Smerling
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The Redtwist Theatre, without changing a
word, has added even greater impact to David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize
winning GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Instead of having an all male cast,
Redtwist has ingeniously enlisted an elite group of ultra-female
actresses to play some of the male roles as women. You just have to see it, it’s
surreal, hypnotic and at times on the edge of the seat frightening.
The key to making a Mamet work audience friendly is to use an
insightful director. Adam Webster came up with the idea of using
the female cast members in non-traditional roles by accident. When the
work was first being contemplated, at a script-reading it dawned on him
that “the workforce is changing, sure, gender, race and age wise and
while we are no longer supposed to verbally acknowledge gender, the
differences inherently remain.” He found that “male-exclusive
dominion of Mamet’s salesmen and the workplace we now find ourselves
in, women are high powered execs, but still playing by men’s rules.”
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is a startling look at a group of ruthless real
estate salesmen who will do anything to sell property. The story opens
in a dimly lit bar. Shelly “The Machine” Levene (Brian Parry) is
begging the office manager of his realty company, John Williamson (Erin
Shelton), to give him some good leads so he can make a sale and get
back on his feet. Williamson, plays by the rules and only gives the
leads to the successful salesmen. Finally Levene persuades him to
“sell” him a lead, but when he cannot come up with enough cash, he’s
turned down.
The rest of the company is equally disgruntled. George Aaranow
(Debra Rodkin) and Dave Moss (Eric Hoffmann) have taken heavy losses
this year as well. Moss is so angry he suggests they stage a burglary,
steal all the leads and sell them to another realtor. Aaranow tries to
reason with him, reminding him that he’s contemplating a felony. But
Moss only scares the hell out of him, informing him that he’s already
an accomplice because he listened.
Ricky Roma (Jacqueline Grandt) is the top salesman in the
company. He feels the pressure to succeed just lie his coworkers,
but manages to prosper anyway. He can sell snowballs to Eskimos. He can
make a potential client believe that buying one of his properties is
the one thing missing in their lives and not buying would be leave a
void that could never be filled. Roma will lie, steal and misrepresent
himself if he thinks he can close a deal.
A few leads later, Shelly Levene enters with a signed contract, only to
find that the office has been ransacked and the police are
investigating the crime, questioning everyone individually. During the
investigation, James Lingk, Ricky Roma’s latest conquest wants his
money back, stating that legally he has a three day window for a full
refund. Roma tries to slip out, only to be clamped down by John
Williamson. He intervenes and ruins everything.
Sleazy, criminal and sinister, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is enough to make
glad to be a renter or certainly wonder if you paid too much for your
house. The ensemble does a great job creating the split
personalities at work in a criminal mind. The space at the Redtwist is
intimate enough to feel the terror these unfeeling dynamos wreak on
their co-workers, easy marks and the made of stone office manager, John
Williamson. Director Adam Webster evokes a can of worms and puts them
back where they belong with the help of the well known ensemble doing some of their
best work to date.
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Highly Recommended
Glengarry
Glen Ross
2008-08-06
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE |
You see, there are these real estate
agents, competing for business in a tight market, and the geezers are
worried that the young hustlers are surpassing them in sales, putting
their livelihoods in jeopardy—yes, it's Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet's
1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning study of greed, testosterone and
white-collar male behavior. The author was writing of his times, of
course, but conditions in today's society—economic uncertainty,
skepticism toward land as an investment, hostility toward West
Asians—are not dissimilar to those a quarter-century past. What's different is that juggling money in
seven-figure increments is no longer the exclusive province of men, nor
are the cutthroat tactics encouraged by such activity.
Mamet, speaking through his agent, granted permission to Redtwist
Theatre's selective cross-gender casting with the stipulation that “not
a single word of the text [ be ] changed.” Under Adam Webster's
direction, the female actors retain their masculine names and pronouns,
but make no attempt to disguise their own vocal ranges or mannerisms.
Rather than crippling the text's dynamic, however, this break with convention amplifies the
psychological warfare unfolding before us. Office manager
Williamson's phlegmatic veneer emerges as icier for residing in a
severely suited schoolmistress-surrogate. Aaronow's meek capitulation
to his colleague's bullying is far more apparent when he is allowed to
collapse almost into tears. And if a bedazzled client cannot resist the
seduction of a sleekly dressed stranger's graphic disquisition on body
fluids, sybaritic sex and seizing the moment, imagine his response when
Ricky Roma's sermon is preached by a statuesque woman wearing a Medusa
hairdo and shoes with heels suitable for cardiac surgery.
Brian Parry's Shelly Levene, Eric Hoffmann's Dave Moss and Jeff Helgeson's James Lingk more
than hold their own on the minuscule Redtwist stage. However,
its restrictive dimensions reduce the action's physical demands,
allowing performers the leisure of savoring their words while still
bringing the running time to an unhurried 90 minutes. Jacqueline
Grandt's Macchiavellian Roma dominates the stage nevertheless,
with sturdy support from Erin
Shelton as the flinty Williamson, Debra Rodkin as the wimpish
Aaronow and Filonna Thomas
as the blustering ( but curiously passive ) police officer Baylen.
The results make for a portrait of desperate corporate outlaws, relying
on shit-eating smiles and spit-polished shoeshines, so intimate that we
are relieved when the players relax at curtain call to reassure us that
it was really—would I lie to you?—all just play-acting.
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Highly Recommended
“Glengarry Glen Ross”
Written by David
Mamet
By Brian Kirst, Contributing writer
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Redtwist Theatre’s gender-blind
production of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Glengarry Glen
Ross” perhaps succeeds beyond even
their initial intentions. By
casting women in roles created for men, they provide the theatrical
twist that their slogan promises and recognize their intent of
exploring how women function in a workplace populated by aggressive
men. By doing so, they also allow the audience to truly examine Mamet’s
work, bringing a new appreciation for his masculine poetry and creating
a cerebral experience most theater is not likely to provide.
Mamet did not allow any dialogue to be revised, so the female cast
members actually play characters named George, John and Ricky. Are we
supposed to consider these characters women or are they still men only
being played by women? Is this merely a classroom acting exercise or a
unique and delightful theater experience? Thankfully, it is the latter
and the questions fade as the evening takes hold.
Focusing on a group of desperate, haggled salespeople, Mamet’s work
shines as deals are brokered and broken and an office robbery is
planned and executed. The gender reversal also allows the curious
audience member to examine Mamet’s work with such a close eye that this seminal work can be considered anew.
The dynamics of feminine intervention ultimately add new layers to the
show and provide a significant level of enjoyment to the proceedings.
What one discovers, though, despite Jacqueline Grandt’s amazing,
powerfully nuanced performance of Ricky Roma, is how well Mamet
initially did his job. The rhythm, power and brutal honesty of his
writing is distinctly Y chromosome, so Brian Parry as the struggling
Shelly Levine and Eric Hoffmann
as the bitter Dave Moss are the most natural and engaging performers
here. Mamet’s language is at one with them and they provide
performances that are both realistic and aurally beautiful.
Meanwhile, Debra Rodkin’s nervous, failing
salesperson George allows Hoffmann multiple levels to play off, making
them excellent scene partners. While Rodkin’s comic energy is
invaluable, it also renders her George so meek and flustered that it’s
hard to believe that George was ever capable of making any kind of sale
in the first place. Erin Shelton as office manager
John and Filonna Thomas
also have strong dynamic presences and fill their moments with subtle
grace and magnitude.
Director Adam Webster works with a
clipped, flowing grace and the production passes by in a quick
energetic rush. His work on this colorful production also allows for
examination and thought long after, making this “Glengary Glen Ross” a compelling and entertaining (if not
entirely successful) evening of theater.
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