Past Shows: Glengarry Glen Ross

Showtime: June 11 - July 18, 2004

Reviews and Press

Glengarry Glen Ross -- It's F***in' Great!

Portland, OR, May, 24, 2003 --"Glengarry Glen Ross:" These three words have found their way into the lexicon as shorthand for all that is venal and shoddy in the American sales business.

Cygnet Productions, Portland's literary cabaret since 1992, reprises David Mamet's Pulitzer-winning play in a three-week run beginning Thursday, June 10, at the intimate Magdelyn Theatre in NW Portland’s Old Town district. The production features an ensemble cast of seven men: Don Alder, Danny Bruno, David Burnett, Jeff Gorham, David Millstone, John Morrison, and Hollis Wilson. Louanne Moldovan produces and Don Alder directs; Danny Bruno is assistant director.

The first act of Glengarry Glen Ross is a series of three transactions: 1.) A salesman negotiates a bribe for leads, 2.) Two salesmen negotiate a vengeful payback, and, 3.) Another waxes philosophical as he cons a mark. All deals unravel in the second act.

The thin veneers of swaggering machismo and false confidence crack, revealing bowel-quivering fear and furious posturing. The play is infused with a sultry, nearly sexual lust for power and control and an air of desperation so thick you could chew it. The characters are low-rent Everymen, luckless hucksters trapped in the need to win, the masculine need to avoid domination, and the shabby humiliations of the boiler room.

Mamet has forged a drama that plays like a bitter blues song. The language is a blunt instrument, but it is wielded so precisely, and with such rhythm, that we hear long minor wails of despair punctuated by staccato bursts of bravado, all underlain by a driving bass refrain of the will to power.

Says Louanne Moldovan, "Cygnet of course has always been preoccupied with literature, and how to make it sing on stage. In Glengarry Glen Ross, the four-letter words play brilliantly against the drama's subtlety. The characters are powerfully drawn, the play is wonderfully structured, Mamet at his best-every word counts, every breath. It's a very nuanced play. And given the distressed state of American business-corporate corruption, lost jobs, it's timely."

While GGR faithfully shows us back-room deals and shady salesmen who take cheap glory in being cunning, its staying power comes in the dead-on depiction of what such a life does to its practitioners-the soul-draining nature of bad work, badly administered, to no one's benefit. We have all sat at this table, on one side or the other; Mamet reminds us what lies on the other side of the abyss.

Local Reviews of Cygnet's Glengarry Glen Ross

from The Oregonian:

“Director Don Alder captures the driving rhythms of Mamet's language and oversees some fine ensemble work by a talented cast. The language may blend realism and stylization, but the characterizations have depth.” Rich Wattenberg, The Oregonian.
>> Read the full review.

from Willamette Week:

“Director Don Alder has assembled a crack cast to populate David Mamet's dog-eat-dog world, with John Morrison, Jeff Gorham, Danny Bruno, Hollis Wilson and recent Drammy Award winner David Burnett. Rather than taking the usual Portland route of shouting a play from lights to curtain, Alder has directed Glengarry with a quiet intensity. Refreshingly, he realizes that the drama lies in the pauses and the characters' reactions to one another rather than in the decibels of exploding "fucks." Alder saves the plum role of Richard Roma for himself and does an admirable job with it.” -Steffen Silvis, Willamette Week.

About Cygnet Theatre Productions

Cygnet Theatre Productions, Portland's literary cabaret since 1992, produces entertaining, thought-provoking theatre. The company produces existing plays, and staged readings adapted from diverse forms of literature including books, letters, short stories and epic poems. Each work is chosen and developed primarily on the basis of literary quality; the company also considers broad, culturally inclusive appeal and contemporary resonance.Whether a play or an adaptation of literature, Cygnet's well-chosen, memorable productions are elegant yet spare, focusing on the text and inviting the audience to open its imagination and engage intellectually, socially and emotionally.

The press may contact our Media Relations Director for additional information:

Sherry Lamoreaux
Media Relations Director
Cygnet Productions
503.796.7926 (office)
503.704.9700 (cell)
sherry.lamoreaux@comcast.net