Theatre |  | Author: David Mamet
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 45527
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 176
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0865479283
Dewey Decimal Number: 792
EAN: 9780865479289
ASIN: 0865479283
Publication Date: April 13, 2010
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Product Description
If theatre were a religion, explains David Mamet in his opening chapter, “many of the observations and suggestions in this book might be heretical.” As always, Mamet delivers on his promise: in Theatre, the acclaimed author of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed the Plow calls for nothing less than the death of the director and the end of acting theory. For Mamet, either actors are good or they are non-actors, and good actors generally work best without the interference of a director, however well-intentioned. Issue plays, political correctness, method actors, impossible directions, Stanislavksy, and elitists all fall under Mamet’s critical gaze. To students, teachers, and directors who crave a blast of fresh air in a world that can be insular and fearful of change, Theatre throws down a gauntlet that challenges everyone to do better, including Mamet himself.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 PC enthusiasts beware April 25, 2010
Richard M. Kuntz (Evanston IL USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Mamet here attacks various theories of theater, most notably ideological ones, following Paul Johnson's critique of Brecht. That the book is short I do not see as a flaw, and I do not find any repetition other than than necessary to overcome entrenched views in the academy.
 Great Ideas, Bluntly Stated May 7, 2010
Todd A. Johnson (NYC)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
In this quick read, Mamet dissects the reanimated corpse of the modern American theatre in hopes of a resurrection. True, several concepts are repeated, but some must bear it in order to sink in. While I was challenged to agree with 100% of what's presented here, I'm interested in the productive center of the dramatic enterprise. Upon objective reflection I was edified.
Mamet: The Dramatic Master August 4, 2010
A. F. Mulvaney (Vancouver, BC Canada)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
With his trademark concision, David Mamet once again challenges professional theatre practitioners to simplify their (otherwise deleterious) methods of organization, production and education. And while he is correct on almost every point he makes, please note that Mr. Mamet hasn't always practiced what he has so rigorously preached.
In "Theatre," Mamet rails against mixing politics and entertainment. One of his best works, however, "Oleanna," is (among other things) a demonstration in censorship and an indictment of political correctness.
Regarding his zeal for the Aristotelian Unities, one might enquire as to which dramatic principles he implemented in bringing "The Old Neighborhood" (a plotless character study) to the stage. "Cut away all embellishment and make the audience wonder what happens next," Mamet demands of us time and again. He posits that a theatrical experience "is essentially the performance of a plot..." But what, then, would be left of Shakespeare's plays if we stripped from them every line that failed to advance the plot?
Bottom line: Mamet's writings on The Theatre often take on an absolutist or reductionist quality. They are all necessary reads for the serious dramatist and thespian nonetheless. Why? Because in "Theatre," as with his other works, Mamet points out the difference between a charlatan and an artisan.
 Physician, Heal Thyself April 19, 2010
Craig Gustafson (Lombard, IL USA)
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
I'm getting angry at this book. Not because I disagree with Mamet's political views (though I do) or his theatrical views (cause I don't), but because it's not worth the money. Every goddamn essay makes the same points OVER and OVER again. He wrote one $5.00 essay and parlayed it into a $22.00 book.
One of the points constantly slammed home is that once your audience's eyes start glazing over, give up. You lost. I'm on page 138 and I'm hard pressed to finish it. My eyes are glazing over.
And this is coming from a Mamet FAN, not somebody who takes umbrage at his comtempt for Method acting. I loved "November". "Bobby Gould in Hell" is one of my favorite plays. His writing is entertaining and he makes valid theatrical points in this book.
And makes them.
And makes them.
And makes them.
Mamet needs to take his own advice about keeping up the audience's interest.
 How the mighty have fallen... April 29, 2010
S. Sharplin
18 out of 28 found this review helpful
There's no denying that Mamet is one of the finest living American playwrights. His non-dramatic writings are hit and miss, but usually when he's writing about what he knows best--theatre--he reveals glimmers of brilliant insight. Writing in Restaurants, The Three Uses of the Knife, and True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor all suggest, in measured doses, the mystical side of drama, even while dismissing much of the dogma associated with Stanislavsky and the American Method.
Given his track record, a book called simply Theatre promised great things. But Mamet has run out of steam; while there may be a few worthwhile insights contained in this series of random, repetitive diatribes, they are all lifted from his previous books. In particular, Theatre is a misanthropic retread of all the "heretical" parts of True and False, as if Mamet is cranky because the entire profession didn't reform itself the moment his last book hit the stands.
I expect a lot of aspiring actors, directors, designers, and playwrights will buy this book in order to learn from a master. Tough, says Mamet; you can't learn anything about theatre, from him or anyone else. Actors are out of luck because, in Mamet's esteem, you've either got it or you don't. Directors are time-wasters, and designers distract from the only important thing on the stage, which is the plot. For playwrights, whose Herculean job it is to create that plot, Mamet's advice is succinct: "Learn how to write a plot." How does one do that? "By writing, revising, staging, revising, and starting again. Good luck."
Mamet's definition of theatre seems narrowly fixed upon a supposed Golden Age of Broadway. As he states innumerable times, the only real theatre is for-profit, professional, contemporary drama (actually, tragedy; drama is too ambiguous). Any other form of theatre (community, not-for-profit, academic, state-supported) is not only considered drek, but ends up hoisted alongside a weird collection of archaic boogeymen: psychoanalysts, communists, fascists, second-wave feminists, and political correctness all seem somehow conspiring to destroy Mamet's Real Theatre. Theatre schools are a particular bugbear for the writer (another repetition from True and False) , except of course for Mamet's own Atlantic Theatre School, which was the Real Deal.
Mamet's prose style is convoluted, abrupt, evoking the worst sort of intellectual posturing--which is odd, for a man who seems so dismissive of anything that hints of academia. Worse, his tone throughout is so negative that anyone passionate about theatre (and who else would buy this book, I wonder?) will either stop reading, or risk having their love corrupted, debased to the level of a mere financial transaction by a grouchy, intrusive old pimp.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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