Review
Published: Thursday 06 May, 2010 by Christopher Hansford, Bath Chronicle
David Mamet's play Speed-the-Plow, which was first performed in America in the late 1980s, is a satirical dissection of the American movie business, a theme Mamet revisited in Wag the Dog and State And Main.
The play gets a local revival next week at Bath's Mission Theatre when Next Stage Theatre Company performs it from Tuesday, May 11, to Saturday, May 15.
Hollywood mid-level producers Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox engage in a verbal boxing match centred on the eternal debate of art versus money.
Should Gould recommend to his unseen boss another bad action would-be blockbuster?
Or should he put himself on the line for a film adaptation of a spiritual, uplifting, and apocalyptic novel?
The office temp acts as catalyst in this debate. Gould has her read the novel in order to report on it to him later at his apartment.
He has a secret bet that he will bed her; there she gives a glowing review of the novel's themes and content, and Gould becomes deeply affected by her and her analysis.
However, she is ditched next day at the office in the play's cynical finale, with Gould's partner, Fox, accusing her of using sex to get a place in the movie business.
Although the story ambition, envy and greed were written more than 20 years ago, unfortunately the themes are as familiar now as they were in 1988.
The company is no stranger to Mamet's work having done acclaimed productions of Oleanna and A Life In The Theatre.
The play, which is directed by Alison Paine, is at 7.30pm each night with a matinee on Saturday at 2.30pm. Tickets cost £10/8 on 01225 428600 or 01225 463362.