Abstract
The same month American Buffalo opened on Broadway (February 1977), Mamet premiered another teacher-student play, A Life in the Theatre. Like Chekhov’s “Swan Song,” Mamet’s play sends an ironic valentine to the stage. Chekhov’s sketch winks at the despair of a vodka-soaked actor who blames the theater for having destroyed his life. Exploring the relationship between life and art, Chekhov’s little gem blends comedy and pathos. Mamet’s play keeps the equipoise of Chekhov’s mixed emotions—Mamet called his play a “sad comedy about actors”— but his full-length play expands considerably Chekhov’s thematic concerns. Both plays put two men alone on an existential stage with no exit except death.1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
On the mentor-protégé motif in Mamet, see Dennis Carroll, David Mamet (New York, 1987), Chapter 5. Anton Chekhov, “Swan Song,” The Brute and Other Farces, ed. Eric Bentley (New York, 1985). Mamet, “A ‘Sad Comedy’ About Actors,” New York Times, October 20, 1977: D7.
Marlo Thomas, The Right Words at the Right Time (New York, 2002), 202.
Daniel J. Levinson et al., The Seasons of a Man’s Life (New York, 1978), 98.
A Life in the Theatre, dir. Gregory Mosher, perf. Jack Lemmon and Matthew Broderick, 1993, videocassette, Turner Home Entertainment, 1994. Unless otherwise notes, all descriptions of scenes refer to this film. Mamet, A Life in the Theatre, unpublished screenplay, 1992, 32.
Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence (Oxford, 1975).
Janet Holmes, Women, Men and Politeness (New York, 1995), 4, Chapter 6. The verbal markers of politeness that John and Robert use from the repertory in Holmes include greetings, compliments, apologies, encouraging responses, expressions of appreciation, and requests rather than peremptory commands. Nor do they generally make face-threatening comments (5, 24–25).
Roland Barthes, “Writers, Intellectual, Teachers,” Image–Music-Text, trans. Stephen Heath (New York, 1983), 196–67.
Carroll, David Mamet 79. John Ditsky, “He Lets You See the Thought There: The Theatre of David Mamet,” Kansas Quarterly 12.4 (1980): 31. Hubert-Leibler, “Dominance and Anguish” 72, 76–77. Dean, David Mamet 135.
Mamet, A Life in the Theatre, dir. Gerald Gutierrez, perf. Ellis Rabb and Peter Evans, Theatre de Lys, New York, NY, 1977.
Michael Billington, “A Life in the Theatre,” Guardian, February 3, 2005; rpt., Theatre Record, 29 Jan.–11 Feb. 2005: 133. Several reviewers commented on homosexual desire in this production.
Mamet, Oleanna (New York, 1992), 48.
Tom Cullen, The Empress Brown (Boston, 1969). Raymond Lamont-Brown, John Brown (Stroud, 2000). Victoria commanded that she be buried with a photograph of Brown in her hand. Simon Schama, A History of Britain, vol. 3 (New York, 2002), 260.
Martin Gottfried, “Life in the Theater Surges with Love,” New York Post, October 21, 1977: 42. John Simon, “Dingbat,” New York, November 7, 1977: 75.
Peter Boxall, “Beckett and Homoeroticism,” Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies, ed. Lois Oppenheim, Houndmills, 2004), 110–32. Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (New York, 1980), 8.
James J. Lynch, The Broken Heart (New York, 1979), 62–68.
Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life (New York, 1967); The Life of the Self (New York, 1983), 114; and “Surviving Disaster,” audiocassette, Psychology Today, 89, 1977.
Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (New York, 1985), 85.
Glenn Loney, “Peter Evans and Ellis Rabb Give Life to the Theater,” After Dark, February 1978: 76+. Julius Novick, “A Life in the Theatre,” the Village Voice, October 31, 1977: 83.
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (Paris, 1971), 196, my translation. In the first production, Mosher had the actors face the back wall for the onstage scenes and the audience for the offstage ones. The film shows the empty auditorium.
Geis, Postmodern Theatric(k)s 94. Mamet, Writing in Restaurants (New York, 1987), 106.
Gail Sheehy, Understanding Men’s Passages (New York, 1999), 224. Levinson, Seasons 253–54; Yamamoto, “To See Life Grow,” 186; Wright “The Role of Mentors,” 205–206; Kram, “Phases of the Mentor Relationship” 609. Erikson, Identity 138.
Mamet quote from Clifford Terry, “At Work and Plays with David Mamet,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, May 8, 1977: 16+. Symbolic immortality from Robert Jay Lifton, The Future of Immortality and Other Essays for a Nuclear Age (New York, 1987), 13.
Copyright information
© 2014 Arthur Holmberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Holmberg, A. (2014). The Cycle of Friendship. In: David Mamet and Male Friendship. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137305190_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137305190_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45476-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-30519-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)