Todd Weeks, Michael Cassidy, John Pankow and Brian Murray
in a scene from Keep Your Pantheon
(Photo credit: Ari Mintz)
David Mamet became famous with quirky one acts in which he developed his own unique voice. His new double bill of farces baldly entitled Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet is not going to enhance his reputation. However, in these two minor efforts which are mildly diverting, Mamet tackles some new subject matter. Neil Pepe’s production for the Atlantic Theater Company includes some Mamet regulars, J.J. Johnston, Jordan Lage and Jack Wallace, as well as Brian Murray and John Pankow, not until now associated with Mamet’s theater.
Typical of much of Mamet’s output, both plays have all-male casts. The 10-minute curtain raiser, School , takes places in an office. A (played by Rod McLachlan) sits behind a desk responding to the complaints of B (Pankow). The subject is ostensibly recycling but the real topic is school bureaucracy. The play begins and ends just about in the same place. McLachlan, seen in Mamet’s Edmund , maintains a very dry delivery; Pankow is more ironic in his bemused irritation with his supervisor’s deadpan responses. The play proves its point long before it is over.
In Keep Your Pantheon , Mamet writes his first historical comedy, dipping back to ancient Rome and the farces of Plautus. A series of blackout sketches in the style of Saturday Night Live , the humor isn’t much better than the pun in the title. However, the cast keeps it moving along as though it were A Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum which it isn’t.
Brian Murray plays Strabo, an actor-manager of a third-rate company in ancient Rome. His lech for his young innocent protégé (Michael Cassidy) alluring in a toga has not paid off and Strabo is about to lose his company and his opportunity. He appears to get a reprieve when an offer arrives for a performance at a party given by the richest man in Rome. How Strabo ruins his own luck as well as insults the army drives the plot. Being a comedy, this leads to an unexpected ending complete with a deus ex machina. The play’s many gay jokes are easy targets without being incisive or witty.
Murray gives his usual reliable performance in a classical-type role, while Pankow gives able support as his exasperated sidekick. Cassidy is amusing as the innocent country bumpkin who takes everything literally and has much eagerness but no talent for acting. Todd Weeks as their landlord and Wallace as an elderly retired soldier can’t do much with their underwritten roles. In his one scene as Lupus Albus, commander of the Tenth African Legion, Lage looks terrific in Ilona Somogyi’s full dress Roman uniform but he fails to make much of an impression. A running gag in which Steven Hawley as a Herald appears before each scene to announce a local advertisement falls exceedingly flat.
Having specialized in full length plays in recent years, David Mamet seems to have momentarily lost his touch with the short form. Two Unrelated Plays in which he tackles ecology and historical parody for the first time is minor work. However, every major playwright is entitled to his off moments, particularly when he offers a few chuckles. With both Oleanna and Race opening on Broadway this fall, we can look forward to Mamet in a major key in the near future.
(through Nov. 1)
Atlantic Theater Company, at the Linda Gross Theater, 330 W. 20th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-279-4200 or http://ticketcentral.com