Set in a junk shop on Chicago's North Side, American Buffalo maps the interactions of three lowlifes in the course of a day.  Store owner Donny (William Hill) is apparently mentoring Bobby (Rusty Ross) in the ways of the `hood, but with the arrival of Teach in a rage (played by an inspired Jordan Lage), the Code of the Land stands revealed:  Desire is 9/10ths of the law - if you want something, it's yours.  Before too long we'll engage with Mr. Mamet's principal themes:  language, power, deception, and struggle played out in an indifferent world.  If you thought human behavior was a zero sums game, where the players' gains and losses are tied together, you weren't at the playwright's table, where, despite what anyone says, it's a winner take all stakes.       

Each character wants something from the other and it's mostly a joy to see them attempt to get it. Mamet's singular approach - as he writes somewhere - is to start a scene late and leave early.   This piques your interest and adds to the tension, but also contributes to some of the confusion. 

It's the day after a card game, but there are some bad feelings over the outcome.  Donny and Teach have come up short, and it seems at the expense of a one particular individual (unseen Fletch) and a lesbian couple (offstage Ruthie the cardplayer and her peripatetic partner who exert control from a distance).  Donny's view is that the winnings were the result of "skill and talent" while Teach figures there is something more conventional at play.  (There's a kind of Three-card Monte being worked between those absent - the Riverside Diner crowd - and those present at the store, with Bobby circulating in each.)  Both try to make their case to each other and then to Bobby.  Meanwhile, there's a job in the works:  some yuppie collector has wandered into the store and stumbled on a Buffalo Nickel which he buys, after a lot of jockeying from Donny.  The store owner has him pegged for a mark and dispatches Bobby to follow him. 

Director Liesl Tommy's thoughtful production is slow to get cooking, but after the lengthy set-up, which is largely revealed by the end of the first act, one I don't want to give away, things start to pick up.  There's a vein of humor running throughout the play that is sometimes mined, sometimes missed.  The parallels between the economics of the underclass and society at large are an ongoing source of amusement as are the strategies of negotiation.  Teach's take on the Bill of Rights, commented in the program, is priceless.  (The distinctions between business and friendship along with the emphasis on loyalty sound straight out of a mob playbook.) The pecking order, the manipulations, and the misreadings of each of the characters are also a pleasure for those attentive to the rich dialogue and body language.  Teach has a lion's share of the great lines and moments and Mr. Lage takes full advantage of his opportunities to lay everything out.  The actor has an impressive Mamet CV, with the articulation and physicality called for in this particular part down pat.  Donny is more problematic as a character pulled from Mr. Mamet's imagination.  He's the fulcrum, but you can't really tell which way he's leaning.  Mr. Hill, an accomplished stage and film actor, is sympathetic in the clinches, but you don't get his character's deep-seated resentment over the mark he wants to cold cock - a class-status thing - or his frustrating position as a middleman.  Mr. Ross as a gopher and go-between has the slightest of roles, and it is harder yet to read, until the end, when everyone's cards are on the table. The playwright ties up several loose at the close of Act II, with several trademark discoveries and reversals leading to a finale that packs a wallop. 

You'll also be scratching your head over the dénouement. This is a plot-heavy play and for those who want to maximize their entertainment, I'd check out a text or go online for a synopsis before attending.  But if you can step back and just appreciate the characters and situations for what they are - complicated and funny - there's plenty to enjoy upfront.  You can puzzle out the details later.  Like all of Mr. Mamet's plays, though, there will be a lot left up in the air.  Just as in life, we can never know exactly what the hell is going on or why.

Neil Patel's set is a triumph of organized chaos in minutia which must rise Phoenix-like after every show. Kathleen Geldard dresses down her characters to meet every bold situation which Lap Chi Chu's lighting gamely frames.  The sound design of Broken Chord (an outsourced production group), before and after the acts, feels incongruous with the show, whether you take it as an ironic statement or misplaced nostalgia. 

The Buffalo or Indian Head Nickel functions as the perfect metaphor for the play's themes of authenticity and legitimacy.  From my own handbook, the coin was considered the most artistic and desired by collectors and as a consequence was worn down in circulation and in handling.  It's also the first genuine American symbolic design.  Except for a few odd dates and errors, it is pretty much worthless. The Buffalo actually appears on the reverse side.  There's a three-legged variety which must be examined for tampering!   At the time it was released, in 1913, it was considered controversial since the Indian was held responsible for the animal's extinction.  Only Bobby looks at the coin, appreciates its artistic merit, and recognizes the emotional value it holds.   

When it premiered in the mid-1970s, American Buffalo was a sensation.  Mamet's blunt dialogue and thuggish characters were a welcome alternative to Arthur Miller's sermonizing and the poetic ruminations of Tennessee Williams, not to mention the parade of musicals, imports, and theater of the absurd oddly served up in a decade of tumult.  American Buffalo brought theater up to date.  Today, though, the play feels a little dusty.  Try as you might, it's tough to reposition those guys in these slick and tech savvy times, where everyone seems to talk their way and those street values have "gone with the wind." There's more to fear from the suits than these con artists.  Still, it contains all the ingredients of great playwriting: characters we care about, stakes worth fighting for, an absorbing plot with plenty of twists and turns, and the seeds of Mamet's playwrighting genius for the many works to come.  

*************************************************************************************Sound check:  Conversational levels of the actors, except for Teach, did not always project well.

Program notes:  Very good, though a little over determined for the play.  Might have been interesting to place Mamet in context with his other work and that of other writers.

Applause meter:  A masterly Teach and a payoff second act get this show a Recommended.

Line of the play:  [Teach to Donny, Act II] "Then let us go and take what's ours." 

Moment of the play:  The final 15 minutes, where everything comes together and comes down.

Stars of the play:  1) Jordan Lage as Teach, 2) David Mamet, and 3) Scenic designer Neil Patel.

Audience response:  A dozen standing Os at the front of the house. We also heard some questions from patrons around us over what was going on, at the intermission and conclusion. 

Runtime: 1:55 w/intermission

©John F. Glass, November 13, 2011