American Buffalo –David Mamet (1975)

American Theatre, week nine

American Buffalo – contexts and themes

Political background 1970s: Vietnam, Watergate, Carter

Language, business, friendship Language and sexuality American Dream Masculinity and friendship Lying

• Vietnam War, e.1950s-1975

1970s: Vietnam, Watergate, Carter

• Watergate, 1973-1974

1970s: Vietnam, Watergate, Carter

• Jimmy Carter’s ‘crisis of confidence’ speech, 1979

Carter’s ‘crisis of confidence’ speech

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns.

(Jimmy Carter, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_malaise.html)

Teach’s concluding speech

My Whole Cocksucking Life.Teach picks up the dead-pig sticker and starts trashing the junkshop.The Whole Entire World.There Is No Law.There Is No Right and Wrong.The World Is Lies.There Is No Friendship.Every Fucking Thing.Pause.Every God-forsaken Thing.

(American Buffalo, pp.103-104.)

Language, business, friendship

The American Dream ‘was basically rape and pillage’ […] We are finally reaching a point where there is nothing left to exploit […] The dream has nowhere to go so it has to start turning in on itself.’

(David Mamet in David Savran, In Their Own Words: Contemporary American Playwrights (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1988), p.133.)

Language, business, friendship

Teach You know what is free enterprise?Don No. What?Teach The freedom…Don …yeah?Teach Of the Individual…Don …yeah?Teach To Embark on Any Fucking Course that he sees fit.Don Uh-huh…Teach In order to secure his honest chance to make a

profit. Am I so out of line on this?Don No.Teach Does this make me a Commie?Don No.Teach The country’s founded on this, Don. You know this.

(American Buffalo, pp.71-72.)

Language, business, friendship

We excuse all sorts of great and small betrayals and ethical compromises [in the name of] business […] Part of the difference between the lumpenproletariat and stockbrokers or corporate lawyers who are the lackeys of business. Part of the American myth is that a difference exists, that at a certain point vicious behaviour becomes laudable.

(David Mamet, in Richard Gottlieb, ‘The “Engine” That Drives Playwright David Mamet’, New York Times, 15 January 1978, Section 2, p.4.)

Lying (1)

‘[I]t is in our nature, as a society, as human beings, men and women, your nature and mine, to lie, to love to lie, to lie to others, to lie to ourselves, and to lie about whether we lie.’

(David Mamet, Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama, p.68.)

Lying (2)

‘All drama is about lies. When the lie is exposed, the play is over.’

(David Mamet, ‘We Can’t Stop Talking About Race in America’, New York Times, September 9, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/theater/13mame.html)

Ideas to consider Which scenes show Mamet offering a critique of

capitalism/business? What similarities and differences are there between Willy

Loman, Walter Lee Younger, and the characters in American Buffalo?

Pick a short section from either pp.5-13 (‘Everything, Bobby’ to ‘I will (Exits)’ or pp.100-107 (‘What did you pay for it?’ to Lights dim), and examine how and why Mamet uses: Extreme reactions Repetition Apparently unnecessary words Brackets (see the Note to the cast list)

Despite never appearing on stage, Fletch, Grace & Ruthie have significant roles in the play. Pick either Fletch or Grace & Ruthie and examine what they represent and how Mamet uses them.

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)

‘Freedom from scruple, from sympathy, honesty and regard for life, may, within fairly wide limits, be said to further the success of the individual in the pecuniary [i.e. monetary] culture.’

(The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899): http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/veblen/leisure/chap09.txt)