The Stage

Glengarry Glen Ross

Published Thursday 18 March 2010 at 11:10 by Natalie Anglesey

In this, its final season at the Library Theatre before relocating, artistic director Chris Honer’s determination to include David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play provides a fitting epitaph to the high quality of work presented by this company over 58 years.

Paul Barnhill (John Williamson) and Richard Dormer (Richard Roma) in Glengarry Glen Ross at the Library Theatre, Manchester Photo: Gerry Murray

The play, dedicated to fellow playwright Harold Pinter, was written in the late eighties but is based on Mamet’s own experiences as a salesman in sixties America. It’s hardly surprising that it’s been described as a literary sequel to Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman because both works examine a cut-throat commercial world devoid of humanity.

Although it was re-written for the film version, which starred Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, this original stage version is equally powerful.

Honer has chosen a superb cast for the Chicago real estate office, with an opening soliloquy from David Fleeshman which sets the whole tone. As Shelly “The Machine” Levene, a senior salesman once at the top of his game, his desperation to stay there is poignantly stoic.

Richard Dormer is charismatic as ruthlessly ambitious top salesman Richard Roma, while James Quinn is also good as George Aaronow, who is beaten by circumstance.

John McAndrew as salesman Dave Moss, Paul Barnhill as office manager John Williamson and Leigh Symonds as the bewildered customer James Lingk are all totally believable in this powerful ensemble production. No wonder this work is regarded as a 20th-century masterpiece and this production is quite simply a triumph.