Yes, A Life in the Theater was written by David Mamet, but folks, this is not the David Mamet you know, that rapid-paced, caustic, socio-political wordsmith of controversial plays like Oleanna, Speed-The-Plow and Race. Over three decades ago, when Mamet wrote A Life in the Theater, he was a kinder, gentler Mamet, a struggling actor himself. This work reveals nostalgia toward that time in his life and empathy toward the passage of time and the grueling life upon the wicked stage.
This two-hander stars Patrick Stewart as Robert, a veteran ham, and T.R. Knight (TV's "Grey's Anatomy") as John, young and eager to learn from the older man until he gains his own footing and eventually loses his unassuming innocence. Robert and John are actors, not stars, who labor at their craft in a repertory company. Mamet sketched their characters and slightly plumped them out during 90 minutes of quick scenes, some even as short as one sentence. Directed by Neil Pepe, it is obviously a quick-flowing work, focused on life in the theater with nothing about these characters' private lives.
The interaction between Stewart and Knight is convincing, their portrayals believable and the characters' need for each other is obvious. Robert preens in his role of mentor, often delivering lofty lectures about the theater and/or life, with resounding statements like, "I'm saying as in a grocery store that you cannot separate the time one spends . . . that is, it's all part of one's life." At first John is glad for Robert's attention and even occasional praise from the older actor.
The productions of the repertory company are vaudeville lampoons of period dramas. In one, the two actors portray sailors lost at sea with outdated corny dialogue. Says Robert's character, a grizzled old salt, "You shouldn't let it get you down, 'cause that's what life on the sea is about."
Stewart's is the heftier role, and his comic touches effectively jar against his self-serving professionalism as he discusses his fondness for cold cream to remove makeup, and as he is costumed in outrageous wigs or suffers stage embarrassments like a broken pants zipper.
Knight has hilarious moments, too, and his buffoonery serves him well. He is wonderfully flustered when he misses his cue in a French Revolution production and also during a surgery mishap in a dreadful hospital spoof.
The humor and wistfulness of the show is carefully balanced as Robert and John's relationship eventually shifts, Robert revealing his loneliness, and acknowledgement of getting old, and jealousy of John's youth and possible success. While John still respects him, he grows impatient with the aging, self-obsessed professional he once admired.
The creative elements are top-of-the-line here. With shadowy indoor lighting by Kenneth Posner, set designer Santo Loquasto placed the curtain as the backdrop so when Robert and John are performing, their backs are to the audience. The rest of the stage is roomy enough for speedy set stages for makeup tables, staircases, and numerous other quick settings for the many short scenes. Costumes by Laura Bauer and Charles LaPointe's wigs all look as if they've seen years of hard wear in a dusty theater company.
Like life itself, you'll find some hearty laughs and some heartache in A Life in the Theater, although its lightweight scenes make this play enjoyable but not great theater. Perhaps most interesting is the glimpse it offers of one of today's hottest playwrights as he was back in the day. A line from Show Boat's "Life Upon the Wicked Stage," obviously applies to David Mamet as well as his two persevering characters --
"There is no doubt
You're crazy about
Your awful stage!"
