OVERVIEW
Overwhelming popularity = seriously limited seating.
HILARIOUS... Mamet, one of the undeniably great playwrights of the baby boomer generation... Give him a genre -- in any medium -- and he'll be more than happy to show you what he can do. From the meditative soul-searching of 'The Duck Variations' to the capering nuttiness of 'Keep Your Pantheon,' Mamet is like a shark shooting through the ocean, his very survival dependent on moving forward."
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- Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times, "GO!... blessed with an ensemble of some of our most talented comic character actors."
- Paul Birchall,
LA Weekly"A crackerjack means of beating the summer heat."
- Bob Verini,
VarietyL.A. Times Feature Story
YOU MIGHT not think that Ed O'Neill, who for 11 years embodied the sour-mouthed suburban bumpkin Al Bundy on the Fox sitcom "Married . . . With Children," would be one of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet's favorite actors. But that would be a faulty assumption…
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- Sean Mitchell,
Special to The TimesA David Mamet Double-Bill!
The Duck Variations (1971) and Keep Your Pantheon (2008), by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet are a hit at the Douglas.
An evening of two David Mamet plays: Keep Your Pantheon is a rousing world premiere farce that follows the fortunes and misfortunes of an acting troupe in ancient Rome. The Duck Variations, a popular Mamet one-act written in the early 1970s, is a sly meditation on the meaning of life. Neil Pepe, director of Mamet's courtroom farce, Romance, which was a hit at the Mark Taper Forum, will direct both plays. The evening features a top-flight cast including Ed O'Neill (Married with Children, John from Cincinnati) and Oscar nominated actor David Paymer (The American President, Oceans 13, Mr. Saturday Night).
In Keep Your Pantheon, an impoverished acting company on the edge of eviction is offered a lucrative engagement. But through a series of riotous mishaps, the troupe finds its problems have actually multiplied, and that they are about to learn a new meaning for the term "dying on stage." The Duck Variations, depicts conversations between two elderly men who are sitting on a park bench and watching ducks. Their observations about the ducks, whether factual or not, create a beautiful fugue on the human condition.
David Mamet was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he later wrote the screenplay. His other plays include Speed the Plow, American Buffalo, Oleanna, Boston Marriage, Romance and November, which recently opened on Broadway.
His screenplays include The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Verdict, The Untouchables and Wag the Dog. Mamet created and is the executive producer of the critically acclaimed CBS-TV series The Unit.
CREDITS
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By
David Mamet
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Directed By
Neil Pepe
Sponsor
Season Sponsors
This production is generously supported by Artistic Director's Circle member
JOHN S. SURABIAN, JR. AND IN MEMORY OF FAITH AND SHARON ANN SURABIAN.
