The Stage

Glengarry Glen Ross

Published Monday 15 October 2007 at 10:30 by John Thaxter

What better way to celebrate David Mamet’s 60th birthday than this strongly-cast revival of his all-male masterpiece in the city that first gave it theatrical life? 

A quarter-century since it premiered at the National, his play about ruthless real estate agents selling dud building plots to wealthy suckers is as fresh as ever, although their street argot, giving a jaunty rhythm to the dialogue, is now almost commonplace and the cash amounts seem trivial in a world talking millions.

A shift of emphasis also colours the central role of Shelly, usually portrayed as a desperate oldster with a Willy Loman complex. But as played by Jonathan Pryce, he becomes a wily warrior ahead of the game, whose downfall is solely due to hubris, careless criminality and reliance on false intelligence.

From the moment the play begins in a Chicago Chinese restaurant, Pryce is the slick wheeler-dealer with a sales pitch that fools even himself - but not Peter McDonald’s shrewd office manager, whose Mr Good Guy-style may mask a villain.

Fine work also comes from Paul Freeman as the timid has-been George, a no-hoper cruelly manipulated by Matthew Marsh’s tough-talking Dave, who plans an office heist to launch a career move, making George the fall guy, and ends with a satisfying snap of his briefcase as he bids a brisk farewell.

Aiden Gillen crowns his career as the swaggering Ricky Roma (a role first created by Jack Shepherd), the big-shot salesman who sees a contract closure as a sign of virility and is not above propositioning a client (Tom Smith) whom he picks up over a glass of tea. 

That all these plot lines neatly unravel is a triumph of Mamet’s script - and of director James Macdonald, whose staging makes sharply focused use of the restaurant and office spaces designed by Anthony Ward.