I watched a performance of Glengarry Glen Ross at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham on the 9th March, written by David Mamet and Directed by Sam Yates.

This performance overall was disappointing. The one aspect which did create some interest was the remarkable performances from certain actors, they were capable of enticing the audience even when the dialogue was confusing. The story as a whole fell flat, their was only one scene where it was not a difficulty to pay attention and understand. This was due to the poor dialogue, over complicating situations and an almost forced humour which only one lady at the back of the auditorium was able to find amusing. As impressive as the two sets were it made for a very stationary story, this paired with the weak dialogue meant that actors had to rely on repetition of phrases, tone of voice and body language to communicate to the audience the feel of each scene.

I did however thoroughly enjoy the different characters, the individuality of characters is one of the only things I can congratulate David Mamet, the dialogue was able to outline differences between characters, most notably the characters Dave Moss and Geogre Aaronow, this differentiation though did depend greatly on Wil Johnon’s (Aaronow) impressive characterisation. Along with Wil Johnson, I must give credit to the work of James Staddon who at first I was not intrigued by at all. This was due to his very minimal dialogue and the direction at which Sam Yates had given to this scene so therefore the character (James Lingk) was almost unnoticed by the stage presence of Nigel Harman during the first half. Lingk was overlooked in his first appearance which some may argue aided Staddon’s performance later on in the performance, where as Ricky Roma (played by Nigel Harman) was expressing his charisma awhich Harman successfully portrayed to the audience in a sleazy way which was perfect for the 80’s salesman he was portraying. The scene I am referring to is when Roma and Lingk are sat in a Chinese restaurant, Roma begins to speak, attempting to portray a careless and strong demeanor to his future client, Mr Lingk. It is the first glimpse of Roma and within a minute of his dialogue he is almost shouting lines of incredibly inappropriate nature at the audience, through Harman’s body language and the change of tone when he eventually addresses Lingk makes it clear he has negative intentions. If anything has achieved the plays abnormally highs ratings, it will be Staddon’s incredible performance in the second half, expressing a new side the Lingk. Roma has clearly pulled Lingk into a world of financial problems when their conversation finally comes to an end. The audience is to assume that this deal has taken part during the time between Roma and Lingk’s first meeting however the dialogue uses terms which may make sense to an audience member with intense knowledge of key sales terms however as an ordinary audience member, I found huge issue in understanding a large majority of the conversation. It is clear that Lingk’s wife has sent him in to repeal their offer over a house and he is intensely worried about this however it is never clear of the details, it is Staddon’s constant hand gestures and pacing which makes the extent of his worry clear combined with the rudeness, sleaziness and confidence portrayed by Harman that makes this scene easily the most compelling scene of the whole performance.

My main issue with the whole play was the dreadful story line. To summarise, a group of greedy salesmen discuss ways of creating more money, they then arrive at the office, certain pieces of equipment are stolen, they argue over who is the better man, one has manipulated a poor innocent man, one committed the crime, end of story. My issue with this was the weak story telling. The play attempted to have 3 separate conversations within the first half of the performance which as boring as I found it being the same set, the set was not the issue, it could have been a very entertaining part of the play regardless but the confusing dialogue paired with how the actors were sat for the whole performance made it incredibly weak. The three different conversations I felt were only capable of asserting the type of character each actor was playing, not unraveling a story. The performance had unpleasant moments which were poor choices made on behalf of the set and costume designer, the use of stage cigarettes was one which ruined several scenes, the aim was to create an environment uncomfortable for the audience as it would be for anybody to walk inside of the office. However it was so unpleasant and awful that instead of focusing on the performance I was choking and debating leaving the theatre due to the awful smell.

As a whole I do not have fond memories of this performance, the poor story and confusing dialogue ruined the enjoyment of certain positive characteristics of this performance.

2 out of 5

Written by Isaac Lewis