THEATRE REVIEW

Watching David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow is like doing intellectual gymnastics.

You’d like to pause and think about each insightful witticism, you’d probably even like more time to laugh, except that all 80 minutes are wordplay-packed and the script runs like a sprint towards the finish line.

The title Speed-the-Plow is based on an old English agricultural saying: "Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow". But this play isn’t about a harvest won on the back of the wholesome Protestant work ethic; the setting is the American movie business in the 1980s, where the simple drive for productivity and profit can twist into something much more... corruptible.

A lucrative movie deal falls in the lap of Charlie Fox (Luke Hewitt), who seeks partnership with his good mate and studio boss Bobby Gould (Steve Turner). It’s not just the prison setting, the action and the blood that promise blockbuster profits. It’s the trump card actor Doug Brown that really sends the two men into a fever of slapdash brainstorming as they calculate and articulate all the power and money that lies just around the corner (well, just after tomorrow’s 10am meeting with Ross).

On kinetics alone, this "boys' club on stage" is a masterpiece. Chuck and Bobby pace laps around the desk, stammering, adjusting ties while sporadically yelling down a telephone line for coffee.

Like a nervous twitch, Charlie’s hands keep returning to that steeple position: fingertips touching, palms apart (like a prayer or supplication), as he reaches for religious heights of profitability and power. He is not a man at peace. The verbal exchange between the men is cocksure and steeped in business lingo, but always pushing at the edge of satire.

When the coffee finally comes, we meet Karen (Gemma Northover) who introduces art and idealism into the mix, via her enthusiasm for a book that’s on Bobby’s ‘courtesy read’ pile. The hardened corporate cowboys are initially immune to the musings of a naive office temp. But when a bet is made about Bobby’s rather shallow plan to seduce her, it seems Karen might be equally capable of seduction.

The seductive power of unprofitable, arty ideas proves unexpectedly potent for a lonely, insecure man who so rarely glimpses those spiritual heights that exist above the bottom line.

Karen’s outpourings on apocalyptic fears, the desire for purity and human survival are somewhat flimsy, but it’s her teasing delivery that weaves a spell around Bobby - and the audience. She gets up from the couch, contemplates the fire, asks for another drink, and Bobby is filled with another point of view.

From this point on Bobby is deeply conflicted (“I’m lost,” he says) as the play rushes toward that fateful meeting with Ross which will determine if art can triumph over greed.

David Mamet is well known for his raw depiction and satirical dissection of corporate greed and power play. Artistic director of Perth Theatre Company Alan Becher says: “While Mamet is no longer a brave new voice – having established himself as one of America’s foremost contemporary playwrights and screenwriters - Speed-the-Plow is one of his best works and I think, a neglected modern classic.”

Speed-the-Plow was first performed on Broadway in 1988 and the script has since attracted casts of high-profile actors like Madonna, Kevin Spacey and Alicia Silverstone. Two decades later, this Perth Theatre Company production of Speed-The-Plow still has enormous pull and an energy that hits the audience in the first few minutes and stays right through to the end. And, in my opinion, all three actors in this production (Steve Turner, Gemma Northover and Luke Hewitt) could rival the best of them.

Venue: Playhouse Theatre, 3 Pier St, Perth
Previews: Thursday 17, Friday 18 July @ 7.30pm
Dates: Saturday 19 July – 2 August
Times: Tuesday – Saturday @ 7.30pm, Mondays @ 6.30pm
Matinees: Saturday 26 July & 2 August @ 2.15pm
Tickets: Stan: $46.50/Conc $37.50/Groups: 6+ ppl $40
Bookings: BOCS Ticketing 9434 1133 www.bocticketing.com.au