Alex Dimitriades,, Brett Cousins and John McTernan. Image by Jeff Busby.
David Bowie’s ‘Under Pressure’ plays in the darkened auditorium at the outset of the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet’s classic play about real estate salesmen vying against each other in a workplace contest where the reward for making the most sales is a new car and the punishment for failing to make sales is dismissal. Portraying an aggressive, macho world and exploring the damage that dog-eat-dog capitalism wreaks on human lives, its themes are as fresh today as when the play was first performed, thirty-one years ago.
Glengarry Glen Ross is an ensemble piece, whose script precisely captures the interruptions and half-finished thoughts of authentic speech. The uniformly excellent cast of this production plays off each other beautifully, making the most of Mamet’s tough, terse, yet poetic rhythms.
Alex Dimitriades is riveting as the amoral, smooth-talking salesman Ricky Roma. If you’ve seen the movie of Glengarry Glen Ross, you might detect an occasional trace of Al Pacino (who plays the same character) in his delivery, but otherwise Dimitriades owns the role, hypnotically charming in action, and calculatingly watchful in repose.
John McTernan has replaced Steve Bisley in the role of Shelley Levine, a once-great salesman past his prime. After a mere week’s rehearsal, Ternan was understandably still using a script at the matinee I saw. Despite this, his characterisation, intonation and timing were spot-on, and Levene’s key moments – both the monologue in which he recounts a triumphant sale, and at the play’s conclusion, when he silently contemplates his own downfall – are deeply affecting. Ternan was at the most obvious disadvantage during rapid-fire dialogue, when reading prevented him from sustaining eye contact with other actors, but he still gave an extraordinary performance under difficult circumstances.
Greg Stone is magnificently despicable as the scheming, bombastic office bully Dave Moss, and his early exchange with George Aaronow (Rodney Afif), his hapless, put-upon colleague, is among the production’s comic highlights. Relative newcomer Nick Barkla is also impressive as office manager John Williamson. Williamson is a passive-aggressive foil to the salesmen’s bluster and cajoling, and Barkla plays this deadpan with just a trace of amusement; he knows that no matter how much abuse he has to absorb, ultimately he holds all the cards.
MTC sets are sometimes lavish for lavishness’s sake, but Shaun Gurton’s set design is admirably restrained – realistic and detailed, without calling undue attention to itself. During the single scene-change, from Chinese restaurant to run-down office, the actors push their own desks upstage, evoking their characters’ Sisyphean task.
The set’s realism is assisted by Nigel Leving’s outstanding lighting design, both in the gloom of the restaurant where the salesmen gather to complain and conspire, and in the bleak daylight filtering through the Venetian blinds of their office.
Tristan Meredith’s sound design is also highly effective, although it falls down in the final moments, when music fades up over the dialogue, drowning George Aaronow’s important last line in general hubbub. Presumably the intention is to demonstrate the daily business of the office rolling on, oblivious to Levene’s personal tragedy, but instead the effect is one of rush and confusion.
Quibbles aside, this is a classy and confident production of an iconic play, whose depiction of human desperation and duplicity under economic stress has never been more pertinent.
Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 stars
Glengary Glen Ross
Melbourne Theatre Company
Directed by: Alkinos Tsilmidos
Starring: Rodney Afif, Nick Barkla, John Ternan, Justin Stewart Cotta, Brett Cousins,
Alex Dimitriades and Greg Stone
Set Designer: Shaun Gurton
Costume Designer: Jill Johanson
Lighting Designer: Nigel Levings
Composer and Sound Designer: Tristan Meredith
Voice and Dialogue Coach: Anna McCrossin-Owen
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, Southbank
www.mtc.com.au
5 July-9 August
