Michael Cassidy (left), Brian Murray and John Pankow in Keep Your Pantheon / Photo by Ari Mintz
One can accuse David Mamet of many things, but being fluffy never seemed like a remote possibility—until the Atlantic Theatre Company chose to produce Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet.
The only reason these two plays have been paired is to create an entire evening (which, at just over an hour, is only barely accomplished). And the seeming only reason for The Atlantic to put the shows on is to cash in on the Mamet name before his onslaught on Broadway later this year, with productions of his Oleanna and Race both opening before Christmas
School, the evening’s curtain raiser, is a decidedly Mamet take on Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” routine—a routine I wish would be retired. A (John Pankow) and B (Rod McLachlan) begin by discussing the wisdom of papering a school’s hallways with signs advocating paper conservation by using recycled paper before segueing into elliptical conversations about jail bait, whether or not anything can ever be completely destroyed and the truth about whether or not the Allies won World War II. Pankow and McLachlan have a flair for Mamet’s pauses and bunched-up sentences, but even at under 30 minutes, the piece (and the joke) seems stretched too thin.
Keep Your Pantheon is more successful, but just as flimsy. An acting troupe in ancient Rome gets in and out of scrapes while staying one step ahead of the landlord. Pankow pops up again as the exasperated Pelargon, the level-headed member of Strabo’s (Brian Murray) troupe, which also includes the object of Straybo’s lustful affection, the pretty but blank Philius (Michael Cassidy). Their woes are manifest, but Straybo remains the classic hammy but unbowed actor, resorting to all the tricks in his bag to extricate his posse from their increasing danger. Murray and Pankow are fantastic, but Cassidy takes his himbo role too seriously, remaining on the same level of bland for the entire performance. The stale jokes are given fresh life by the talented cast under Neil Pepe’s direction, but other than a pleasant way to pass an evening, there’s little to recommend these two unrelated and wispy plays.
Also lacking sack is Vigil, now playing at the DR2 Theater. Starring Malcolm Gets (a refugee from last season’s insta-flop The Story of My Life) in what amounts to a 90-minute monologue, Vigil is about bank drone Kemp (Gets) descending upon the dying aunt he hasn’t seen in 30 years (Helen Stenborg). Playwright Morris Panych has seen fit to construct his play as a series of vignettes, all of which end with a black joke about Grace’s impending demise followed by a blackout. After a while, the conceit wears thin and the audience starts fidgeting, desperately wanting Panych to stop being so damn funny and write a play.
Director Stephen DiMenna keeps Gets mobile with a surprising and welcome lack of obviousness during his reminiscences and cajoling. And Gets, who looked terrible in The Story of My Life, looks superb and delivers the goods here. He clearly relishes the dark dialogue, and with his hair in a side part and a clad in a baggy vest, his Kemp seems exactly like the sort of socially awkward man who finds himself acting on his lifelong impulses to take out everyone he considers to be an inferior. The play’s twist is obvious and the fragmented scenes ruin any sense of pacing, but Gets makes this Vigil worth keeping.
> Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet
Through Nov. 1, The Atlantic Theater Company, 336 W. 20th St (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-279-4200; times vary, $65.
> Vigil
Through Nov. 29, DR2 Theatre, 103 E. 15th St. (betw. Irving Pl. & Park Ave.), 212-239-6200; times vary, $65.
