Glengarry Glen Ross

This David Mamet Pulitzer Prize winning play set in a real estate office in Chicago is a pretty hard hitting piece of theatre.  As sales are below expectations the bullish Blake (Mark Walker) sets his team, in no uncertain terms, the task of increasing sales making it a contest.  To the winner will go a state of the art car but failure will result in dismissal.  This news firmly sets the cat among the pigeons as each salesman tries to come up with strategies which will at least eliminate the loss of his position.  Throughout the audience is made to see that, almost without exception devious ploys are being brought into play as the men try to ensure that they will get the all-important good sales leads which will result in a successful outcome.

Glengarry Glen Ross is a really challenging piece for any director and cast bit as usual Mark had gathered a very strong group of local actors all of whom threw themselves whole – heartedly into their respective roles.  All gave memorable performances, Richard Roma (David Russell) the present king of the heap confident that he would win; Shelly Leven (Jon Reynolds) once the leader of the pack but now losing direction; Dave Muss (Alan Galway) a hustler and George Aaronow (John Simpson) who was my star performer of the evening as he demonstrated his characters angst and uncertainly to perfection.  The remaining cast gave great support. 

I had a few issues with the set in that I felt it needed to look a bit more upmarket and also I would have liked to see a good shine on the shoes – the men were, after all, salesmen and first impressions would be all important.  However these are minor criticisms.  The standard of the production from an acting point of view was first class and I’m sure the rest of the audience like me were very impressed.

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