Close the deal, or find a new place to work. This is the daunting reality imposed on four Chicago real estate agents in the opening scene of David Mamet’s award-wining play, Glengarry Glen Ross, which opened last night in the Experimental Theatre.
Set in the 1980s, the play exhibits the pressures of being a salesman and the lengths some employees will travel to make the sell. Thick tension and desperation permeates each scene, reinforced by the constant competitive atmosphere of the agents’ dull, blue office space and threats from the administrators, whose primary concern is the bottom line. Also compounding the situation for the real estates agents is the fact that the agents are forced to sell unattractive property to people who do not want it.
“It’s a play about salesmen, and it’s set in a community of men” said Director James Cherry. “It’s a community of men that has no sympathy, no empathy, and has no compassion. It’s all about competition and who is going to be on top. This competition eats these people alive.”
Glengarry Glen Ross opened Wednesday, February 20, 2008 in the Experimental Theatre of the Fine Arts Center under the direction of Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre James Cherry. The name of the production is derived from the names of two of the properties being pitched by the salesmen: Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms. The Wabash Theatre Department’s rendition of Mamet’s 1984 Pulitzer-Prize and Tony Award-winning play features an eight-member cast that includes Kyle Cassidy ’08, Spencer Elliot ’10, Dustin Foster ’09, Matt Goodrich ’09, Josue’ Gutierrez ’11, Patrick McAlister ’10, James Morey ’11, and Luck Robbins ’11. The plot surrounds dried-up agent Shelly Levene, the mediocre Dave Ross, the hotshot Richard Roma, and anxious George Aaronow. They are given an ultimatum to close their deals at all costs. The catch is the leads they get are the toughest to sell: crappy property to deadbeats. Beholden to a system and choices they find unfair, they have to decide how long they are willing to play by the rules and how far they are willing to go for the agency and for themselves.
As the play unravels, it becomes apparent they will go as far as necessary. In the shadows of an old Chinese restaurant, Shelly Levene, played by Kyle Cassidy, is the first to decide.
“I can’t close these leads, John,” Shelley said to office manager John Williamson, played by Spencer Elliot. “No one can. It’s a joke. [The prospectives] couldn’t buy a…toaster. They’re broke, John. They’re deadbeats. You can’t judge on that. Just give me a hot lead. Just give me two of the premium leads. I’ll give you ten percent.”
One by one, the agents play the hands they have been dealt and plot a strategy of success just as cold and unfeeling as the task they were expected to complete. In the end, every man is for himself, as they each get called in for questioning: some by the police, some by the ones they had wronged, and some by their own conscience.
“I think that Glengarry Glen Ross covers a lot of ground, thematically speaking,” said James Morey ’11, who plays James Lingk, an innocent bystander who gets swindled by one of the salesmen. “A very large part of the play is concerned with a sort of self-destructive drive for success and self-determination. The salesmen spend a good deal of the play attempting to persuade or downright coerce the others into going along with their preferred course of action. They seem to live for the moment’s smooth talk with only the vaguest idea about what they want in the future.”
In addition to the cast, the stage manager’s talents are on display in the production as well. The innovations regarding lighting, fixtures, music, and general functionality required the coming together of different people.
“If I were to sum up the experience in two words, they would have to be cooperation and coordination,” said stage manager Cody Grady. “Designers, directors, the dramaturge, stage managers; it takes everyone to make the show run smoothly. It all comes down to proper planning and being able to work together.”
Assistant Director and dramaturge Nelson Barre was one of the pieces of the coming together of the play, and he is excited for the audiences to see and hear the hard-edged production. “The play is fast-paced, energetic and intense from start to finish” said Barre, who conducted the bulk of the research for the production. “Seeing the characters unfold in front of your eyes really gives a sense of the desperation and cutthroat sensibilities of American business meeting the American dream.”
The play begins at 8 pm. Each night and will run through Saturday, February 23, 2008.