AMERICAN TANTRUM
AMERICAN BUFFALO
Directed by Tony Giordano; written by David Mamet
With: Dwight Bacquie, Gregory Russell Cook, and Don Harvey
At Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine
From March 30 to April 18, 2004
Reviewed by Laurie Meunier Graves
Now I understand nerves.
—Teach, from American Buffalo
In general, modern American drama in the theater tends to focus, with
varying degrees of success, on the dark side of our culture. From Arthur
Miller to August Wilson to Sam Shepard, the stories revolve around the ways
family members fail each other and the way society fails the individual.
Indeed, the focus is so hot and intense that many of the plays take on a
claustrophobic feel, giving the characters little room to develop. This is
not to say that the plays are failures. Far from it. Indeed, they usually
have a compelling momentum that grips the viewer from beginning to end, and,
for the most part, quells or at least quiets any longing for the breadth of
action and range of character found in Shakespeare’s plays. (I know. It is
unfair to compare anyone with Shakespeare.)
American Buffalo, written by David Mamet and in production at
Portland Stage Company, falls squarely into the dark, claustrophobic camp of
American theater. Indeed, Portland Stage Company’s excellent set only serves
to reinforce this notion. It is a junk shop full of worthless clutter—among
other things, old irons, toasters, fans, a typewriter, a rack of coats and
clothes, and an accordion. On one side is a desk littered with papers; on
the other side, a card table with beer cans and Styrofoam cups. The set has
a squalid, lived-in look that is both realistic and more than a little
depressing.
What kind of characters would inhabit such a set? Not surprisingly, a trio
of men who might be called losers and who are working against each other
while at the same time paradoxically competing for attention and, in a
strange kind of way, affection. Don is the owner of the shop, which seems to
serve as a kind of edgy social center for the neighborhood. Don is king of
the junk shop, hosting poker parties here, doling out money there, and all
the while on the look out for the next hot item to sell. Bobby is his
protégé, of sorts, a very young man whom Don feels compelled, in clichés, to nag and
nurture and lecture. Bobby accepts this with a shrugging
nonchalance that seems to take Don’s concern for granted.
Then there’s Teach, a choleric, foulmouthed man, younger than Don but older
than Bobby. Teach bursts onto the stage with a barrage of forced speech,
whining and complaining and cursing because his “friends”—does such a man
have friends? —have supposedly insulted him. Through sheer force of
personality, he overwhelms the audience as well as Don and Bobby. We laugh
at Teach but in a horrified way. Like Falstaff, Teach represents the worst
of male behavior, but unlike Falstaff, Teach doesn’t have much fun. A
belligerent, bitter man, Teach expects the worst and has obviously gotten
it.
The plot, such as it is, revolves around Don’s scheme to steal back an
American buffalo nickel that a customer bought for $90. Don is convinced the
nickel is worth five times as much, even though there’s no firm evidence to
support this. It’s clear that Don hasn’t even bothered to check a coin book
for the nickel’s value. A softer version of Teach, Don gives the audience
the impression of a man who believes that he has been consistently duped and
that his big break is just around the corner with the next theft or con job.
It’s a perverted version of the American dream, but it’s not entirely false.
The audience only needs to consider the American robber barons and swindlers
who have profited from this approach to realize that Don and even Teach do
indeed have a point. Unfortunately, neither of them is clever enough to pull
it off.
When the play opens, Don has decided that Bobby will be his accomplice in
getting the nickel back. Teach, however, catches wind of the plan and
convinces Don to drop Bobby. Instead, Teach will help steal the nickel, and
he and Don bungle hilariously through plan after plan to do the dirty deed.
There is a Godotlike character named Fletch, who is supposed to help with
the crime. Fletch, of course, never makes an appearance but nevertheless
unleashes a violent chain of events, aided by the hapless Bobby, who tries
to ingratiate his way back into Don’s good graces.
On the surface, American Buffalo seems to be no more than the story
of the American dream turned sour. However, all through the performance, I
got flashes of a weird sort of family dynamics playing itself out. When, at
the end, Teach has a monumental, destructive tantrum and then begs for Don’s
forgiveness, that feeling became even stronger. Then, when Bobby, too, asks
for Don’s forgiveness, the matter seemed clinched for me. Underneath,
American Buffalo is the story of two “sons” in fierce competition with
each other, vying for their unreliable “father’s” attention and approval.
Like the sons in True West, Teach and Bobby are locked in an eternal
conflict from which there is no escape.
Oddly enough, Don Harvey, who plays Teach, also played Lee last year in
Portland Stage Company’s production of True West. I must say that
Harvey does an uncommonly good job in playing hulking men with hair-trigger
tempers. Harvey’s Teach is a menacing motormouth who is both childlike and
dangerous. Harvey effectively portrays Teach as a needy man in a state of
arrested development. Harvey, who has the most lines, also does a terrific
job with the so-called Mamet-speak, repetitive chattering that hammers at a
relentless pace.
Gregory Russell Cook plays Bobby with such naturalness that it almost seems
as though he is not acting. He slips into his character as if it were a
second skin, showing us an uncertain young man trying to negotiate
treacherous territory.
Dwight Bacquie brings a satisfying heft and presence to the role of Don; he
really does seem like a father figure. Yet, Bacquie convincingly shows the
audience how greed can overcome Don’s “fatherly” instincts and lead to a
betrayal of Bobby.
These three actors come together in a funny yet horrifying performance that
pierces through to the dark side of American society and family. The
characters are pretty much one-sided and never really rise above their
types. However, what types they are! Their power is undeniable, and like
True West, American Buffalo is a story that stays with the viewer long
after it is over.
