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Speed the Plow
Presented by:
Human Sacrifice Theatre
Venue:
Chapel off Chapel, Prahran
Reviewer:
Chris Muir
Date
Reviewed:
Sunday 17th May,
2009
In his 1988 play, Speed-the-Plow, David Mamet blots the
black, bitter ink of his pen across the glossy façade of Hollywood.
He writes of a place where both the truth and friendships are
stretched and only the clinically cynical survive. As exemplars of
this view, a trio of archetypal Tinseltown casualties – part film
noir, part slapstick – play out a not-so-merry dance of desperation
and manipulation.
Ageing film producer Charlie Fox has stumbled upon an oil field of
blockbuster sludge he intends to flood into multiplexes the world
over. He enlists up-and-comer, Bobby Gould, to help it get the green
light – Hollywood-speak for getting it made.
The two used car salesmen-cum-studio execs have a concept that can’t
lose (it can be described in a sentence and features an A-list actor
and a prison) and simply have to sustain the heady coffee-buzz until
they pitch to the studio bigwig in 24 hours.
Enter office temp, Karen, whose “courtesy read” of a New York
author’s long-winded novel of nuclear fallout affects her so
profoundly that, later that night, she convinces a drunk and lustful
Gould to make it instead of the can’t-lose prison flick.
Throughout the performance a series of graphic novel-style
illustrations are projected onto the backdrop of the stage. They
present the three characters in their fraudulent, two-dimensional
glory but it is the cast who successfully bring these apparitions
from the back-lots of Hollywood to life.
Colin MacPherson, as Fox, plays up the comic book villainy of his
character, every raise of the eyebrows from behind his black shades
perfectly-timed. He paces Gould’s office in an ill-fitting suit, his
air-punching and triumphant tooth-sucking reminiscent of a
television evangelist channelling a big credit card payment.
The fast-paced exchange of compliments between him and Gould in the
throes of shop-talk, however, soon turns to barbs and bruised
knuckles when Gould decides to back the philosophical novel. The two
men circle each other, all frothing machismo, and barked insults.
Between them stands Karen: patron of the “East Coast pansy” novel,
foe of the fickle and the cornball. But is she too looking for a
piece of fame through the empty vessel of Gould? Matt Edmond’s
direction and Kasia Kaczmarek’s portrayal provide no easy answers to
the enigma that is Karen. She stands awkwardly, bending her ankle in
a fashion that may be coquettishly calculated or simply from a lack
of practice tottering around in stilettos.
Human Sacrifice Theatre’s performance is an impressive exposé of the
shady making and breaking of deals that take place in the offices of
the cowboys (and a femme fatale temp) that make up Hollywood’s
extended cast. Theirs is a world where style and substance, commerce
and art do not interact but remain separate –never to move forward,
despite the green light.
Chris Muir is a third year Creative Arts student at La Trobe
University, majoring in English and Cinema Studies. He hails from
the land formerly known as Van Diemen’s, where he mastered the art
of wood whittling. He is currently whittling a feature film script
but fears this may be a bit trickier than that ‘doorstop’ he crafted
from a chunk of Huon pine.
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