Ari Cohen and Jorden Pettle (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)
Soulpepper's Males
Mamet's people
by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff
From F. Scott Fitzgerald, to Norman Mailer, to David Mamet himself, many a serious writer has gone to Hollywood to pay the bills and then tried to create art out of the spoils. Speed-the-Plow, Mamet’s riveting three-hander contends with the film industry’s ever-present contradiction between art and the box office. This play, and indeed Soulpepper’s production, does what Mamet does best: lays bare the jousting/jesting relationships between male co-workers and rivals. And so we meet Bobby and Charlie, colleagues and competitors, in a Hollywood studio which has just elevated producer Bobby into a position where he might for once attempt to rise above the usual schlock. This threatens erstwhile friend and co-worker, Charlie, who, swallowing his humiliation after being passed over, has just brought his rival a sure-fire prison-buddy script, with a hotshot Director thrown in for good measure.
