Mamet Stage Direction

摘要

David mamet writes plays and movies and TV shows about tough guys. When he came out as a conservative, he did so in the lefty Village Voice, which was a tough-guy thing to do. And he leaves no doubt that he likes his acting the way he likes his haircuts: straight up, no BS. In "True and False," his book about acting, the crew-cutted writer-director gives the impression that we make too much fuss about an essentially straightforward job-like bricklaying, but with a frilly curtain and a follow-spot.Yet Mamet's writing-and the demands it places on actors who try to perform it-are more complex than this workaday veneer, as the diverging fortunes of two new Broadway revivals of his work make clear. "American Buffalo" is a modern classic about three small-time crooks who bungle a robbery. Though it's blessed with a talented, if improbable, cast-John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer and Haley Joel Osment-the show feels sluggish. Or, rather, it feels muffled.