{"id":3669,"date":"2012-10-14T17:04:25","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T00:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2012-10-14T17:04:25","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T00:04:25","slug":"actors-theater-has-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/actors-theater-has-a-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"ACTORS THEATER HAS A WINNER"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPEED THE PLOW<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Mamet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Directed by Carole Robinson & Christian Phillips<\/p>\n

Starring Joseph Napoli, Dean Shreiner & Sydney Gamble<\/p>\n

\"PHOTO<\/a><\/p>\n

Actor\u2019s Theatre never fails to amaze me.\u00a0 Christian Phillips manages by some miracle of talent and determination to put up truly compelling productions of American classics that speak to every generation.\u00a0 He does this \u00a0on a minuscule budget in a tiny, spare theater void of any pretentious d\u00e9cor.<\/p>\n

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In this production of SPEED THE PLOW, he and his co-director Carole Robinson have gone far beyond their previous successes.\u00a0 Their interpretation of David Mamet\u2019s classic tale of unscrupulous greed and ambition has elevated this excellent script into a work of art that cannot help but mesmerize with its rapid fire dialogue across a stark almost empty stage. There is very little movement on stage, but every gesture makes an impact.\u00a0 \u00a0The program notes tell us that \u201cMamet\u2019s plays often deal with the decline of morality in a world which as become an emotional and spiritual wasteland,\u201d and the bleak stage with its bare walls is the ideal setting for a play whose central theme is how easily our souls are bought . All three characters in the play are merciless and narcissistic human beings \u00a0without a shred of compassion for one another.<\/p>\n

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Let us talk first about the actors.\u00a0 It is hard to believe that these three people are not among the top performers in the bay area, so professional were the interpretations of their characters.\u00a0 Dean Shreiner\u2019s Bobby Gould is right on the mark.\u00a0 He is a self-serving, greedy movie producer whose eye is always on profit at the expense of art.\u00a0 As the play develops, we see beneath his brittle crust to the insecure, needy man beneath.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When, in the third act, we realize he has succumbed to Karen (Sydney Gamble)\u2019s seduction, he says, \u201cShe understands that I suffer,\u201d and his persona visibly softens.\u00a0 The audience can see his vulnerability and feel his desperate need to do something \u201cgood\u201d with his life. \u201dYou look forward to your life and you think it\u2019s never going to happen.\u00a0 Deep down inside I never thought it would,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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And Charlie (Joe Napoli) \u00a0replies \u201cYou\u2019re a whore, Bob.\u201d And he is right. The reality is that Bobby has compensated for that need to be special by being rapacious and hard- nosed in an industry where sentimentality is a death knoll.<\/p>\n

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Joe Napoli\u2019s Charlie is perfection times ten.\u00a0 His verbal pace is amazing, his expressions validate his words and his presence on the stage is mesmerizing.\u00a0 He obviously sees himself as he really is and he likes his image.\u00a0 \u201dIf I\u2019m just a slave to commerce, I\u2019m nothing\u2026\u201d because for him, the selling and making movies is an exciting and dangerous game that he intends to win no matter what the cost. \u201cWe all hope,\u201d he tells Charlie.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what keeps us alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sydney Gamble is a student at The Academy of Art in San Francisco but in this production she has the professional polish of an actress twice her age and four times her experience.\u00a0 Her Karen combines an innocence with a hard core that is fascinating to watch and always believable.\u00a0 When she visits Bobby to talk about the vapid script she just read, one senses that she knows as well as he does that it is not commercial. Her purpose in going to his flat was to better herself, not to report on the script.\u00a0 She \u00a0has set her sights on producing that film with him and so she hits him where he is weakest: his self esteem.\u00a0 \u201cWe are all frightened, she says.\u00a0 \u201cI listened to your heart and I saw you.\u00a0 You were put in the world to make movies people need to see.\u201c (In direct contrast to Charlie\u2019s pronouncement in the first act when he tells Bobby, \u201dYour job is to make movies that make money.\u201d)<\/p>\n

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Karen knows she has scored a hit with Bobby when she appeals to his better self and she pursues her advantage by telling him she knew why he asked her to his apartment and she is willing to pay the price.\u00a0 She knows it will get her exactly what she wants.\u00a0 She says, \u201cYou asked me to come.\u00a0 Here I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There is not a trace of the coquette in her interpretation of her role.\u00a0 Her speech seems innocent and altruistic and yet everyone in the audience knows exactly what she is.\u00a0 We see in her very presence that she has a goal and that goal will serve her purpose, alone.\u00a0 \u00a0That is acting taken to its best level.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen the curtain falls on this short and unsparing study of sharks in the shallows of the movie industry, it’s as if you had stepped off a world-class roller coaster. The ride was over before you knew it, but you’re too dizzy and exhilarated to think you didn’t get your money’s worth,\u201d says Ben Brantley in his New York Times review of the production of the play in 2008 on Broadway.\u00a0 \u201cThe slangy, zingy patter of exaggerated insult and tribute swapped by the studio executives Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox isn’t just air filler; it’s the existential warp and woof of their lives. \u2026.”Speed-the-Plow” is about what happens when the shiny bubble produced by this talk is punctured by someone who doesn’t speak the language.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And that sums up this Actors Theatre production, as well.\u00a0 It is a polished, glistening gem of a play that shows us what we are beneath the veneer we assume in public.\u00a0 Mamet sees us all as base creatures ready to sell every value for a pot of gold.\u00a0 One walks out of one of his plays furious at the human condition and perhaps it is that fury\u2026and that fury alone\u2026that will spur us on to make ourselves better.<\/p>\n

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If you love theater, you will want to se this production of SPEED THE PLOW again and again.\u00a0 It is everything fine dramatization should be from the first words spoken on that stage until the last.<\/p>\n

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Plays until November 10th, 2012; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8pm.<\/p>\n

Venue: Actors Theatre of San Francisco, 855 Bush St, Between Taylor and Mason<\/p>\n

Box Office: (415) 345-1287<\/a> or online at\u00a0DramaList.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Tickets: General: $38, Students & Seniors: $26<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPEED THE PLOW David Mamet Directed by Carole Robinson & Christian Phillips Starring Joseph Napoli, Dean Shreiner & Sydney Gamble Actor\u2019s Theatre never fails to amaze me.\u00a0 Christian Phillips manages…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"