I saw this at a very small theater in Cambridge, MA, (Inman Square) on the eve of the great blizzard of '78. By morning five feet of snow lay on the ground.
In that long ago performance, the actors understood Mamet and knew how to work with pauses. Mamet indicates in his scripts, also, where characters speak some lines from a more introspective POV. I'm tempted to go get my copy of this play and follow along.
All right. This was very cool to see an actual theater production of this cool, gritty play. It makes up for not going down to the big apple to see last year's revival with Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss. The dialogue has a similar cadence and repetition as Mamet's Glengarry Glenross.
Tho I’m seeing this six years after the fact, this was the best version I’ve seen. All the actors were great but this is the best version of “Teach” out there
Damn, where did they find these guys?? Evidently, they don't understand Mamet's play. I really don't know who to blame here. The Director or the performance of these actors. Mamet's work is like a fine wine that you MUST let to breathe before drinking instead of taking a shot a whiskey as we see here.
@@pjom4191 Well said. Knowing their audience (the fast talking street wise person from Limerick City) if they had the pauses allowed for the famous actors on Broadway - people in Limerick would be unsure that the actors know their lines and kept forgetting them or not! Same goes for any Irish City. Except Galway maybe.
I saw the original production. Robert Duvall's performance as Teach was so so spectacularly riveting that it ruined all subsequent productions, Including two others, both featuring, surprisingly, the woefully inadequate Teach of Al Pacino, a forgettable performance when measured against that of Duvall. al Pacino, a Pacino
...Duvall's entrance was incredibly effective. He came tearing in filled with rage and frustration crying out loudly "...f*ckin' Ruthy," ( reportedly the first time the F-word had ever been voiced on a Broadway stage) His physical and verbal ferocity shocked the entire audience I'm sure. By contrast, the mousy underplaying into a cramped, poorly lit space as in the performance above really kills the play's opening. To fail to properly deliver a principal character... that's never a good choice.
@@darnmarr Now wait a minute! Duvall played Teach?! I thought he played Donny! Who did play Donny opposite him? Is it the same production I heard about where they were told to 'take as long as they like' with the pauses which pushed the play over the 2 hour mark? Or was that the Pacino version? And why is no one talking about Donny? Is it because he looks like Bill Bailey?😆
@@craggyhole Donny is clearly the better actor, but nobody ever mentions him, because, notoriously, the smallest amount of praise sends his ego out of control.😀
why they talk like robots, throwing the replies back and forth like basket ball???? is not natural speech as Mamet teaches to work ones action off the other's actors expressions looking for one cap! .... this is staccato acting like school theatre is... I don't like it!
