February 2012

Dear Subscriber: 

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE was a thrilling example of how the theatre can transport you to a place of exhilaration that is unexpected and will stay with you forever. From the stage magic to the voices to the whole story, the production was the talk of the town. It was a most exciting way to bring in the New Year. People were coming to see the show from all over the country—it isn’t produced that often and word of our electrifying production brought people to it. That and A Steady Rain made for a very potent January.

FEBRUARY BRINGS US David Mamet’s argumentative and fascinating play, Race. After close to a year’s run on Broadway, it is the kind of play that will get your juices flowing—from its fiery subject to its humor, it is a play you’ll be wanting to discuss with your friends. A well-known and sometimes incendiary playwright, screenwriter, essayist, author and director, Mamet immerses us in the world of law in Race. Though it was written in 2009, the play eerily evokes recent headlines about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, exposing the dark underbelly of polite, high-class society. It is a look at how the 1% may be treated as opposed to others in the population.

PARTNERS IN THEIR OWN FIRM, attorneys Henry Brown and Jack Lawson have been asked to take on a new case. It seems that a privileged white executive has been accused of raping a young black woman, and no one in town wants to defend him. Neither do Henry and Jack, at least at first, but they agree to think it over. Along with their new paralegal, Susan, the two men review the facts of the case and begin finding out more than they bargained for, both about the job and themselves. And as is the case in many of Mamet’s plays, not everything is quite as it seems and will finally unfold at the very end of the show. He certainly knows how to write in surprises in his stories.

MAMET HAS SAID that democracy is put at risk when fears and bias influence legal proceedings—but that is the world we live in. He illustrates this through his lawyers and their approach to every facet of the case they are dealing with. Frankly, some of what the lawyers say is appalling, but it may be a look behind the scenes of how things are said when no one is watching a high-profile case being assembled. It probably is good to say that this is the playwright talking, not the theatre.

IT APPEARS THAT Mamet has used the writings of Shelby Steele as the foundation of the arguments he is laying out. This is a post-civil rights play that looks at the fact that the conversation about race has stalled. Americans have forfeited their ability to speak on racial matters—any race. If you make a criticism that is racial you may ruin your career, injure your business. It is a conversation that will never end and one that is fraught with lots of minefields.

RACE IS VERY SIMILAR to many of Mamet’s other works in its forward, sometimes brutal, honesty. Known for his candor and controversial subject matter, Mamet pulls no punches but goes right after issues in American society that are typically off limits. Not about preaching, his work is instead about questioning and asking you to think about things normally banned from polite conversation. In our world of political correctness, are we really as "good" as we pretend to be? Can we really have an honest, productive conversation about something as personal as race? Pushing buttons around every turn, Race exposes underlying agendas not only about race relations in America, but also about sexual politics and the justice system.

JUST AS INTERESTING as his subject matter is Mamet’s creative style. Writing in an edgy, rapid-fire dialogue so distinct it has come to be known as "Mamet-speak," the playwright has certainly carved himself a niche in the contemporary entertainment world. There is a music to the machine-gun rhythm of his dialogue. It is a unique form, and it is part of what secured his reputation in popular culture. A Pulitzer Prize winner for his play Glengarry Glen Ross, he has also been nominated numerous times for both the Oscar and Tony Awards, and is responsible for such works as American Buffalo, The Verdict, The Edge and Wag the Dog.

AND THEN THERE’S Mamet’s public persona. Never one to hide his feelings or shy away from a confrontation, the writer is completely himself, as shown in his recent and very public shift to the political right after years as a staunch liberal. Whether it’s his op-ed piece for The Village Voice entitled "Why I Am No Longer a ’Brain Dead Liberal’" or his new book, The Secret Knowledge, in which he turns his pen on everything from government to global warming to religion, he is certainly not afraid to be controversial. Perhaps that’s why his plays are so interesting. They test and challenge some of our most closely held beliefs, really making us rethink the status quo. The language in the play is strong, as it is in all of Mamet’s plays and films. It is unvarnished and raw sometimes. Also, his use of strong language can be as funny as it is shocking; it is written for a particular purpose and to reflect what his characters would say in various situations. One other thing to be aware of is that we will not be having post-show discussions for this play. Many of you look forward to our post-shows, and this is a play that could inspire some very exciting conversations. However, for some reason Mamet has specified for all theatres producing this play that there can’t be any post-show discussions. No one quite knows why.

I’M PLEASED TO welcome back Timothy Near (The Glass Menagerie) to direct this production. She has assembled a design team of Rep alumni including Scenic Designer John Ezell (You Can’t Take It with You), Costume Designer Myrna Colley-Lee (The Fall of Heaven), Lighting Designer Brian Sidney Bembridge (Next Fall) and Rep Resident Sound Designer Rusty Wandall (A Steady Rain). Our cast includes Zoey Martinson as the paralegal Susan, Morocco Omari and Jeff Talbott (A Christmas Story) as our attorneys and Mark Elliot Wilson as their client.

WE BRING YOU a play this month that will challenge and intrigue you. If you know a lawyer who doesn’t regularly attend The Rep, this might be a show for that lawyer to see. The ride home would be pretty wild I think.

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf 
Artistic Director

P.S.: Get your tickets now to next month’s Ignite! New Play Festival. This new series brings us readings of three plays that are sure to have a great life after their inception here. Don’t miss your chance to see the beginnings of these exciting new works. See your insert for detailed information.

DON’T FORGET that May 20–27 we will be holding our annual trip to London. With a week of exhilarating theatre, behind-the-scenes opportunities, celebrity guests and more, it is sure to be great fun. Please call our Development office at (314) 968-7340 x 228 to find out full details.

ALSO, it’s not too early to start thinking about next season. Although we do not have our show announcement yet, we will soon. Watch for your early renewal notice and continue to take advantage of your exclusive subscriber benefits!