Was It All Worth It?

A review of the Magic Roundabout Theatre Company's enactment of David Mamet's

American Buffalo.
Jan Hacin, 5 June 2016

Directed by: Zeb Moore.

The cast: Stefan Barry as Donny Dubrow, Darren Maher as Walter 'Teach', Gerr Meaney as Bobby.
Date and location: Limerick City, Ireland, February 2013.

It seems that Mamet really likes to clash people with incompatible

personalities against one another. In American Buffalo, we meet three of them:
Donny 'Don' Dubrow, a small Chicago junk shop owner who values friendship and
loyalty; Walter 'Teach', Don's paranoid, aggressive, boastful associate; and Bobby,
Don's young, simple-minded friend.
After a coin collector buys a rare coin from Don at a relatively low price, Don
believes he has been deceived, and starts plotting his revenge. He calls in Teach and
Bob and plans on robbing the collector at his house. With Bobby on the side, Don and
Teach start dividing the workload and are trying to decide on the best possible course
of action. However, they merely end up playing a verbal game of Ping-Pong, with no
progress shown as each of them express their own wishes and expectations. The
entire process turns out to be futile, and the play culminates in a violent ending,
expressing the frustration felt on both sides.
The performance remains almost completely faithful to the original, so the
question is whether it has managed to capture the essence of the original. In that
regard, it has done its job well and is a recommended view. The setting and the
characters, with the latter being the focus, are definitely what Mamet had in mind.
We are placed in a dark, small, almost claustrophobic setting, a den of a sort, which
the three use to conduct their business. There is a sense of paranoia, a lack of trust in
the air; even the window blinds are turned upwards, preventing anyone from peeking
inside. Aside from that, the room is cluttered with various items and a few symbols of

Americanism, such as the national flag. While this may not be as obvious at first, the
props point to the real subject of the playthe materialistic, business-driven
American society.
The characters are as I envisioned them, and their appearance compliments
their personality very well. Don, with his striped shirt, hairstyle, beer belly, and his
clear, confident voice gives off an impression of a father figure, a leader, perhaps even
a wise, reasonable man. Then we have Teach, with his leather coat, gruff voice, and
the "macho" style of facial hair; he is obviously trying to appear a confident man.
However, we clearly see him as a show-off, and his paranoia, along with the constant
obsessing over other people turns him into a somewhat tragic figure. Maher plays out
his role well, as he keeps nervously pacing up and down the room and turning his
head away during conversation, unable to maintain a certain pose for more than a
moment, unable to remain calm. And then there is Bobby he pretty much functions
as the child of the group. His unconfident manner of speaking, his juvenile clothing,
and the fact that he usually looks like a student that has just been sent to the
principal's office all contribute to that.
The values of "Big Business" end up clashing against friendship and loyalty,
the very values that Don so strongly stressed at the beginning. After he is convinced
by Teach to push Bobby out of the plan, there is an apparent change of attitude in
him; he seems disappointed with himself. Even though he learns that Bobby has lied
to him, and even though Teach wrecks his shop, the only person Don is angry with at
the end is himself. Through him, American Buffalo expresses its strongest social
criticism it is unfortunate that basic human values, such as friendship and loyalty,
are so often neglected for reasons of greed and selfishness. And it may be why Teach
is now such a paranoid wreck he might not have anyone else but Don that he can
trust in this world. As the three characters end up sitting silently, contemplating the
situation with their heads faced down, the play arrives at a tragic, but eye-opening
ending. It was not worth it.

REFERENCES
Mamet, David. American Buffalo. New York: Samuel French, Inc. 2010. Print.
skryrant. "American Buffalo The Play". YouTube. 17 Aug 2013. Online video clip.
Last accessed 4 June 2016.