Theater Review—

Hartford’s Take On ‘Buffalo’ Offered A New Look At Mamet

By Julie Stern

HARTFORD — When David Mamet’s American Buffalo first premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theater in 1975, Frank Rich called it one of the best plays of the decade. Since then it has seen numerous revivals in New York, New Haven and elsewhere, was made into a movie with Dennis Frantz and Dustin Hoffman, and now it is being staged at Hartford’s TheaterWorks under the sure direction of Steve Campo.

David Mamet is not everyone’s cup of tea. Before the performance, the house manager made a clever announcement, to the effect that those people who wished to enjoy an “expurgated” version of the play should turn around in their seats and speak to the people sitting behind them. Ask them to put their hands over your ears for the duration of the show, and there will be no problem. Unfortunately, for those people sitting in the last row, there is no help…

I didn’t notice anyone following his suggestion, but at the end of the performance,  just about everyone rose to give the cast a standing ovation. The “unexpurgated” language was simply a display of Mamet’s dramatic shtick of total verisimilitude, having his characters speak like real people, however inarticulate, repetitious, or profane they may be.

Set in Donny Dubrow’s  seedy, rundown junkshop, the play takes its title from a rare Buffalo nickel that Donny inadvertently sold to a coin collector for  a price much lower than its worth. Feeling he was cheated, Donny and his simple-minded gofer, Bobby, hatch a plot to steal it back, breaking into the man’s house and taking his whole collection.

Pushing his way into the plan is Donny’s cynical, know-it-all friend Walter, known as Teacher. Playing the role of the experienced criminal, Teacher convinces Donny to drop Bobby from the robbery team because he is too unreliable. Instead he wants to bring in another acquaintance, Fletcher.

As the evening wears on, these bozos argue and remonstrate with one another. Fletcher doesn’t show up, so Teacher accuses him of double crossing them. Bobby comes back, making Teach even more suspicious and abusive.

American Buffalo is funny in the way that Waiting for Godot is funny. If you like that play, you should enjoy this one, especially for the phenomenal acting by John Ahlin as Donny, Zachary Spicer as Bobby, and Andrew Benator as Teach.  This foolish bunch of losers manage in the end to invest the story with a level of human sympathy and meaning that I never noticed in previous productions of it. Thus it is an interesting theatrical experience, given a top drawer production by one of the finest  theater companies in the state.

(Performances continue weekends until October 25.

For curtain and ticket details call 860-527-7838 or visit TheaterWorksHartford.)