I liked this play/production a lot. I don’t think I’d seen Alfred Molina before and was very taken with his acting. Colin Stinton was excellent too, as was Rebecca Pidgeon.
It’s a play about the movie business. As is often the case with Mamet plays about the world of work, Mamet captures the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the work place extremely well – an aspect that is often lacking in plays – perhaps because playwrights haven’t spent much of their lives in the actual hard-nosed world of work.
Theatricalia has an entry for this one – click here.
Wikipedia explains the play’s synopsis and it’s run history. Madonna played the female lead in the original Broadway production just a few months before this National production – who knew?
There are some #MeToo elements to this play that, obviously, weren’t perceived as #MeToo at the time because #MeToo hadn’t been invented – although movie business males belittling movie business females had been invented.
Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:
Ratcliffe on Plow Sun, Jan 29, 1989 – 45 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:
Billington on Plow Thu, Jan 26, 1989 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Anyway, point is, this was an excellent Saturday evening of theatre with Bobbie…
…by which I mean Bobbie Scully, not Bobby Gould, the lead character in the play…
…well, actually an excellent Saturday evening with both Bobbies, now I come to think of it.