American Buffalo

Broken Gears Project Theatre’s AMERICAN BUFFALO at the I.S.P. Studios Theatre, Irving


__________________________AMERICAN BUFFALO_________________________
Reviewed by ASSOCIATE THEATER CRITIC, Laura L. Watson , THE COLUMN

David Mamet’s AMERICAN BUFFALO as produced by Broken Gears Project Theatre is an amazing display of acting and design talent, though most of the story and point of AMERICAN BUFFALO was lost on me.

“AMERICAN BUFFALO is David Mamet's engrossing, tragic take on the American Dream. Three men struggle in pursuit of their warped vision of success. Things take a violent turn in the end when corruption takes over and ideals are betrayed. At times cynical, humorous, and poignant American Buffalo is an emotionally charged, classic piece of American theater.” (taken from Broken Gears promotional materials.)

The play is set in Don’s junk store over the course of one day circa 1975. It opens with Don and Bobby cleaning up after a card game the night before. Through their conversation, we learn they have a job to do that night. Teach enters later and through the conversation we learn they plan to rob someone of his valuable coin collection. The second act begins about 12 hours later as they prepare for the robbery and end up turning on each other rather violently. There is a whole host of other characters who take on very real and defined personalities though we never see them. This play would EASILY be rated R for language alone. I dislike this play, very much, but was mesmerized by the performances being given. I got more from the actors than the storyline. Mamet seemed to be more about high emotions, yelling and swearing than anything of substance happening. The actors, though, with the assistance of the entire Broken Gears Project team, held my attention and kept me on the edge of my seat, waiting for the story to take off.

I.S.P. Studios in Irving is a very small space, allowing for only about 40 chairs, though the performance play space is quite ample. Set Designer/Dresser Cindy Ernst had the difficult task of outfitting the space with junk, yet junk that didn’t overpower the storyline and was period appropriate. I made a note in my program, even, that it looked like every prop the theatre company had ever used or had donated was placed on stage. I wanted to go shopping after the show was over- you never know what treasures are under the junk! The store itself was well constructed and felt very much like every junk store I’ve ever been in (and I’ve been in a lot.) The lighting was appropriately dark in the second act, but a little too dark for the daytime scene of act one.

AMERICAN BUFFALO was well cast and directed. Director Diana Gonzalez guided her actors to finding their inner motivation and creating wide character arcs where the dialogue hinted at nothing. The blocking never felt planned- always organic and well suited to the space. Terry Yates as Don, Alex Worthington as Bob, and Mike Schraeder as Teach were all ridiculously believable and likeable, faults and all. They each delivered the rapid, intense dialogue with precise diction and clearly had motivation for each line and all action (though I was never clued in). Schraeder was extremely good at what I like to call “detail acting”- the little things that clue us into the character such as repetitive yet specific gestures. Yates had the greatest discovery and the most layers to reveal- from the gentle, fatherly figure to his explosive anger in the second act. Worthington gave an extremely believable performance as the simple minded, good hearted, just wants to please “the guys” Bob.

As I said before, I don’t like the play, but I’d see AMERICAN BUFFALO again and again to soak in the astonishing performances given by these three fine actors. I eagerly await the next production from Broken Gears Project Theatre because I know it will be “risky, accessible, progressive, and socially aware theatre that will challenge” me.

Broken Gears Project David Mamet’s American Buffalo through June 19th.

Performed at I.S.P. Studios located at 1957 East Irving Blvd. - Irving, Texas 75060. www.brokengearstheatre.com


*REVIEWED 06/12/10 PERFORMANCE

Reviewed by ASSOCIATE THEATER CRITIC, Laura L. Watson, THE COLUMN

Directed by Diana Gonzalez
Written by David Mamet
Stage Manager: James McKenzie
Asst. Stage Manager: Ben Schroth
Technical Director/Lighting Design: David McKee
Set Designer/Set Dresser: Cindy Ernst
Asst. Technical Director/Asst. Set Designer/Head Carpenter: Joe Truitt
Asst. Set Dresser: Clare Kapusta
Property Designer: Joel Frapart
Costume Designer: Justin Locklear
Scenic Painter Kaori Imai
Producers: Whitney Holotik, Andrew Aguilar, Joey Folsom


CAST
Don Dubrow: Terry Yates
Walter Cole aka Teach: Mike Schraeder
Bob: Alex Worthington