Donny (Tracy Griswold) Bob (Ryan Barry) Teach (Jim Andreassi)
Photo by Judy Sirota Rosenthal
Raw, brutal and powerfully
disturbing…David Mamet’s drama/comedy “American Buffalo” is all that and
more. You’ll feel like you’ve gone
ten rounds in a boxing ring with the champ and you’ve come out battered and
bruised. The intimate space of the
Kehler Liddell Gallery in the heart of Westville, at 873 Whalley Avenue, New
Haven is a splendid venue for this Elm Shakespeare powder keg of a play.
Elizabeth Bolster has created
a wonderfully cluttered junk shop filled with collectibles and trash, guitars,
lamps, baseball bats, license plates, paintings on velvet, a multitude of
minutia that inhabit Donny’s place of
business. Donny, a good guy trying
to make a buck, is portrayed by a grisly Tracy Griswold, presiding over his
little kingdom, hosting the occasional poker game, giving odd jobs to Bobby who
means well but is challenged mentally.
Bobby, captured perfectly by
Ryan Barry, wants desperately to be one of the guys and he will lie if it helps
him fit into the action. Right now
Donny has a plan, not a great plan or even a good one, but he is determined to
see it through. A customer came
into his shop and cheated him in the purchase of a Buffalo head nickel and now
Donny, with a blue book of coin values in hand, is scheming to stage a heist
and steal it back, with Bobby as his lookout.
Into the fray comes Teacher,
a big kahuna masterfully played by
James Andreassi, who knows all the angles and wants to take over as head
man. The air fairly crackles with
the angst and energy he exudes as
he paces and stalks with authority and attitude, both with a capital A. To complete the team, he plans to
enlist Fletch but complications arise, tempers flare, tensions explode. The language and action are not for the
delicate of heart. Mark Zeisler
directs this drama laced with dark, dark comedy with a steady hand on the trigger.
For tickets ($35, students $20), call the
Elm Shakespeare at 203-393-1436 or online at www.elmshakespeare.org. Performances are May 17 to 20, Thursday at 7:30 p.m.,
Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4:30 p.m. On Friday, May 18, there is a Special Benefit with wine and hors d'oeuvres at 6:30 p.m. followed by the performance at 8 p.m. Watch for announcements for their
summer offering of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” at 8 p.m. August 16-19, 21-26 and
August 28-September 2 in Edgerton Park in New Haven. A special gala will be held Thursday, August 30 from 5 p.m. –
8 p.m.
If you’ve ever considered a
life of crime, take a cautionary tale from what Donny, Bobby and Teacher do and
do just the opposite.
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