Speed-the-Plow is an exhilaratingly sharp, comical, disturbing play about the power of money and sex in Hollywood, and how they corrupt two movie producers. Speed-the-Plow opened at Lincoln Center to sold-out seats, rave reviews and much fanfare in March 1988--staring Madonna, Joe Mantegna, and Ron Silver--and later moved to and had a long-standing run on Broadway.
David Alan Mamet is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. His works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for his exploration of masculinity.
As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).
Mamet's recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, an acerbic commentary on the movie business.
Wow, do Mamet’s characters know how to talk! I mean that as both a good quality and a bad. Mamet’s characters are people who find their motives as their mouths move – through declarative sentences, tiny pauses, and instant redirections. His famous plays – including Sexual Perversity in Chicago, American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna, and Boston Marriage – are chock full of curses, fancy words, odd turns of phrases, and pop reference.
Speed-the-Plow is a quick-fire three-person play about Hollywood (a theme he’d revisit in some part in his film Wag the Dog). Bobby Gould is a recently promoted film producer. Charlie Fox is Gould’s friend, confidante, and sometimes protégé and employee. One day, Fox brings to Gould a stellar deal – a big-budget action hero actor will leave another studio to come work for them if they do a prison film. If they pitch it to studio head Richard Ross, there’s bound to be celebration all around – with over-the-title billing for Fox and Gould and big paychecks for everyone involved.
Gould is also assigned a courtesy read by his boss Ross (whom we never see). The courtesy read is of a recent book about radiation, and how it is part of humanity’s continued evolution – an almost impossible concept to film. Gould gives the task to his temporary secretary Karen in hopes that when they discuss it, he can take her to bed. In fact, he is so confident that he can shtupp Karen, he lays a bet with Fox on it.
Karen turns out to be more convincing than either Gould and Fox perceive. She reads the radiation book and loves it, and in being wooed by Gould, woos him to consider producing a movie about it.
Speed-the-Plow (a title that refers to the good work of constant industry) is full of sexual stereotyping, power plays, and egos. It’s also full of words, separated occasionally by commas, overlapping, and ellipses, and even more infrequently, periods.
The problem that I’ve had with early and middle Mamet – and this is middle Mamet (1988) – is the lack of defining character. Actors can find Mamet’s unique speech, but Mamet’s characters on the page are almost always a little bland; they talk like each other. You don’t walk out of the theater clearly remembering any of them unless the actors themselves are phenomenal – Mamet leaves that work entirely to the creative team. Mamet is also famous for lack of writer description of how to deliver the lines – leaving that up to actors and directors, too.
He is certainly a playwright to see performed (i.e.: he is a difficult read, because of the verbosity and lack of finished thoughts). When you see him, it’s hopefully by professional and creative actors and directors – or he sort of sucks. His scripts can come across as only verbose, cruel, and bitter. If actors don’t get his patter – and if they cannot find a way to define their own characters more sharply – the audience is going to suffer. The plot is there just to support the endless talking; one can sense how this would seem horrible stuff in the hands of amateurs. Mamet always attacks naivety, and he always suspects duplicity. His world is not a kind one at all; his comedies are all decidedly dark. His jokes emerge accidentally, and only if the actors know how to play them.
Still, I could see this in the right hands being an enjoyable, riveting night of theater. Maybe not the favorite on anyone’s lists of plays, but certainly worth the price of admission.
Reading David Mamet's, "Speed-the-Plow", felt like taking loads of stimulants and sitting in the corner of a Hollywood producer's office as he is first offered a chance at a movie with a big name that he just can't pass up before I jump ship and follow the producer and his temporary assistant to his house where she persuades and seduces this fellow to be a better man and produce an "artsy" adaptation of a book concerning radiation and its effects on humanity before being snapped awake and sent back to aforementioned producer's office where he tries to pick between a good friend and an obvious money maker or the experimental movie that seems to now mean something to him--amidst all this I laughed at the typical stupidity and their self-aware debasement of culture as if I'd not seen or read it before, and somehow with the razor-sharp dialogue and the absurd characters I found I didn't mind the familiarity of this, on the surface, anti-Hollywood play because the characters drew me in and I never minded going along with them even if my heart felt as if it might explode from the sheer frantic energy going back and forth every second of this story. A good companion piece, that I've always felt was underrated, is David Mamet's movie "State and Main" that has in it the master, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
In regards to the plot, a movie producer named Gould is debating with his friend and colleague the importance of money versus art. Though the two agree that it is "art" that is most important, it is clear that money is what rules both of their lives. The rising action occurs when Gould bets his friend that he won't be able to have sex with his new secretary. In order to bed her, Gould gives her a book that was given to him as a "courtesy read". The woman falls in love with the book and its message and convinces Gould to throw away his cynical view on art and Hollywood and produce the film.
As is typical with Mamet, the script is filled with swears and at times confusing conversations in which the characters talk extremely fast and cut each other off. The power of the entire play is centered on three characters. Though the plot sounds tragic, it is also comedic. As is typical with Mamet, he pushes all of his characters to the extreme while still allowing them to possess an excellent sense of humor. Unlike other plays, the comic relief is built into the script and does not take place in its on separate scene or plot line. Instead, the characters are both tragic and comedic and have to embody other aspects.
disappointing, as a read 2020. i can imagine that this worked on stage, 1988, but... yes, the dialogues are sharp, but the characters are very schematic and simple-minded, the two men talk in a pretty similar way. the cynical „hollywood-satire“ seems plain and somehow dated, with a simplistic plot and pretty clichéd views... times have changed.
David Mamet's somewhat engaging take on the truth and sliminess involved in the Hollywood movie business. Mamet should know what he's talking about, of course, having worked in Hollywood as a both a screenwriter and director. Yet all of the classic "Mamet-isms" and all of the verbal sparing and regurgitation can't make "Speed The Plow"'s rhetoric any more than what it is...a simple story of ambition and vulnerability.
Yet the question is...do you buy it? Do you buy the fact that...say, a powerful Hollywood Head of Production at a Studio could be that gullible and impressionable after just one glorious evening with a hot TEMPtress? If you buy that, you've never been to, nor have ever worked in Hollywood. Even beyond that, Mamet offers very little in the way of coherent depth into any of the three characters, especially the Studio Production head. Perhaps that is the point, that these people have no depth to speak of. That's all well and good, yet it does not make very interesting drama.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I listened to this production solely because Jeff Goldblum starred in it. It was fine. The whole play takes place in a Hollywood executive's office. His friend is trying to get him to bankroll his prison action movie. His secretary is trying to get him to make a conceptual film about radiation and the end of the world. They all argue. I didn't really get the point of it in the end, but I didn't hate it.
قدرت،کسانی که قدرت کمتری بهشون میرسه میرن سمت فکر و خیال فکر میکنن فقط اونها هستن که همچین ایدههایی دارن! نمایشنامهای بود که خیلی درکش نکردم اما میدونم که درصدی به شخصیت کارن حق نمیدم! و از بابت اینکه به سزای کارش رسید در پایان واقعا خوشحالم! یه منشی ساده که تلاش میکنه با خوابیدن با رئیسش به اهدافش برسه آیا همچین آدمی حقی در هیچ مسئلهای خواهد داشت؟؟؟
Though I was a fan of Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow lacked the same kind of edge-of-your-seat feeling. With this play, I didn't find myself as engaged with the characters' struggles - indeed, about halfway through I found myself not really caring about the crisis of each individual character. The dialogue is sharp and witty (very Mamet-esque), but the plot just didn't grab me. Perhaps it is a play that is better seen onstage, or maybe this play just hasn't aged well in the 20 or so years since its release.
I think that those who like Mamet plays must often be the kind of people particularly thrilled by playing Cards Against Humanity. Ooh, swearing! Ooh, people doing bad things! Ooh, bad people! Ooh, good people doing bad things - like us, playing our naughty little game! We’re too dewy-eyed to be comfortable with our inherent human hypocrisy - especially in these days of hyperactive superegos - so we exorcise our bad impulses at a safe distance with a giggle and squeal!
Art v. Demand v. Success v. Ideas. Is it possible to be a good person and do the right thing in Hollywood? Or is sticking with an old friend to make loads of money the lesser of two evils (the first being making loads of money and exploiting those who aren't your friends)? Smart, funny, sad. In the end it's all about the money.
A spiky venture into Hollywood with a producers dark heart momentarily pierced by the desire to make art over money. The plot allows for tension between friendship as well as good intentions while twisting the concepts of loyalty, ambition and envy into shapes they were never meant to make. Sharp dialogue tops off a heavyweight threeway battle.
Another homework assignment for my online class, Speed The Plow takes us inside the rarified air of studio executives struggling to achieve their lives' objectives: getting a picture made and getting laid. The evolution of Mamet's craft is evident as he brings us up close and personal with three Hollywood hustlers looking to get over not the system and each other.
I know this play entirely from the fallout of the Broadway revival in which Jeremy Piven ended hospitalized for exhaustion or from eating too much fish. Regardless, I didn’t actually know what it was about. It’s a Hollywood play, specifically about a script reader and a studio head looking for the next big thing. The play ultimately ends up coming down to the choice between a glitzy movie and a thoughtful one. And the play goes from there.
I have zero interaction with or experience of Hollywood, other than knowing a few people whom I either know well, but only worked on the outskirts of Hollywood, or people who have ended up much more deeply involved, but whom I not not well at all. So it goes. I did want to try to be involved in filmmaking in one capacity or another, but I wasn’t an actor, have never really wanted to write, and honestly I barely watch movies any more. So that worked out for me I guess.
It’s weird because nearly one hundred percent of the things I DO know about Hollywood either come from writers who worked in Hollywood, like this play here, or from movies about Hollywood. Sometimes those are celebratory and sometimes not, but boy does Hollywood like to talk about Hollywood. I do bet Jeremy Piven is good in the role, but it’s already basically just Ari Gold, which is already basically just Sammy Glick.
I find reading plays difficult because I lack all imagination. I also am bad with names and rarely remember who is actually talking. Unfortunately I also don't really like seeing plays as people performing in the same room as me make me uncomfortable. I am a super treat to hang out with. Mamet is without doubt a master of language and story telling and has all of the imagination and brilliance I lack. To say my reading does not do his work justice is an understatement. To say I was particularly moved by the black comedy of movie production in Hollywood, the hypocrisy and insincerity of the system, the double-speak and self-centered motives of the players would as be an understatement. I got it. I just was also like, um, 0kay. I consider in all fairness though that since Mamet's play, such a story has been told and retold, and since I rather enjoy movies I can watch from the safe distance of my home, I have seen many. I can understand he may have been the best origin, but it's hard for a poor player like me to feel invested in this one.
We read watch Mamet plays for the powerful, brutal dialogue and the feckless characters who rarely do the "right" thing. Speed the Plow is a lean and mean play, with three characters who keep the reader's/viewer's mind engaged throughout. This isn't Mamet's best play, but, on a re-reading of this about twenty years after I saw a wonderful live performance of it, I was pleased at how the core themes still stand up well. I also recommend listening to the L.A. Theater Works audio book recording of a live performance starring Jeff Goldblum, Adam Arkin (fantastic work!) and Dina Waters.
It was good I just wish- What was The play was good, it was- Why was it good No that’s what I was trying to get- What do you mean It was interesting delve- Delve into the soulless nature of Hollywood- That’s what I was going to say So we agree Well I hadn’t finished Oh? Didn’t really feel like it managed to touch any issues at the heart of the Hollywood sy- Well it was written in 1988 so it- Oh that’s excusable then I suppose
I have long been a fan of Mamet films but had never read one of his plays. This play was SO deliciously funny! I did work in Hollywood for many years, so much of it has a kind of "inside" appeal but nonetheless, I think this wicked funny play about friendship, loyalty and profit in Hollywood makes an excellent read for anybody and especially writers who aspire to the kind of wit of Mamet.
I listened to the audio presentation with Jeff Goldblum as the lead. He was was quite excellent in the role. The trick about David Mamet is his rapid fire dialogue delivery. On paper his scripts are very minimalistic, stage direction is almost non existent, but when delivered with talented actors it creates an engaging experience.
A critique of the movie business which gets to the heart of its insincerity. While movie execs claim (even to themselves) to be searching for pearls - “praying” for something “pure”, the moment they get it, they don’t know what to do with it. A funny and interesting play.
From reviews and from my vague memories of Mamet's other work, I always imagined this as being all about Hollywood executives talking fast and being abrasive and screwing each other over. Those things are in Speed-the-Plow, and Mamet definitely likes writing that kind of dialogue; but I was surprised at how well this worked for me dramatically, with some really unexpected variations in subject and tone, and how much I ended up wanting to see it performed (especially if I could travel back in time and see Elisabeth Moss in it).
It starts out as an exercise in figuring out, with basically no exposition, how these two dickhead producers relate to each other business-wise and personality-wise while they rattle off a lot of entertaining Mametisms, and setting up the idea of a big score that'll clearly be what gets them into trouble somehow, and our main boy Gould's pathetic designs on the secretarial temp Karen. That's all nicely done and economical; a whole play of that would be pointless. The second act briefly lets us think that this is still on the same track and that Gould's scheme will either succeed or fall flat, until, with really nice comic timing, it suddenly becomes clear that the author is more imaginative than the character and that this will now be about something completely different. The central dialogue between Gould and Karen (which of course is how they're listed in the cast: he's the kind of guy who has a last name) has got to be a treat for actors, as you can see a previously opaque character unfold in a way the other person clearly did not expect and has no idea how to deal with while trying to find some way back to the original goal, all during a discussion of a terrible philosophical science fiction novel (which, I was delighted to learn, is actually a parody of a short story that had been written several years earlier by... David Mamet) that Gould is looking for excuses not to buy the rights to. The new situation that this ends up in is clearly destined to be torn down somehow, and although we're given a strong argument for that, the person giving that argument is so terrible and the new dynamic of act two was such an interesting surprise that it's hard to say whether restoring the status quo would avert a tragedy, or be a tragedy. I'm really not sure where Mamet's sympathies lie here, if he has any: I've come to think of him as a misanthropic asshole due to his later behavior, but I like the kind of ambiguity I see in Speed-the-Plow where even if the author actually sees things the same way Fox does in the end, what he's given us makes it equally plausible that Fox just lacks the imagination to understand a person whose issues are so different from his; I'm OK not knowing, as long as that guy will never know either.
I think the third act is still too long, and its action feels less interesting because the final move is accomplished so easily and relies so much on someone immediately giving up, but I'm often OK with a hasty ending if what led up to it was as involving as the first two thirds of this.
As we began reading this I feared that my friend had made a horrible choice. After 10 minutes it begins to delve more into the realities of a society that sees shareholder profit as the ultimate human achievement and the only public goal worth having. I think portraying how it affects even the seemingly pointless endeavors, such as movie making, is a perfect way to infect the readers mental bones with questions about the oceans we swim in. "you've felt like that, where one thing changes you" The quote below very clearly summarizes a common view about women in the work place at the time, and do I daresay even now. Of course I say that, haven't you heard what people say about how Vice President Harris got her job!! The prejudices we hold are even more damning when we take them in and then act according to them. Though the female characters in life are not all motivated by using sex for power, they of course can give into it and become what they feared they would, as the woman in this play appeared to have done. "Everyone wants power. How do we get it? Work How do they get it? Sex"