“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,” The New York Times, September 13, 2009
The next time an anthology featuring playwright’s explanations of their work is completed—heck, the next time an essay collection about race in America is completed—David Mamet’s piece from this past weekend is going to be prominently featured, I’m sure.
Few people at this point know the cunning turns and bristling dialogue in Mamet’s upcoming play, Race. But, if it’s anything like his other work (notably Oleanna, a two-character faceoff on sexual harassment, in its Broadway debut this season, a mere 16 years after it opened elsewhere), it’s likely to be provocative, even incendiary.
For now, we have the Times piece, filled with all kinds of aphorisms-in-the-making, not only the above but this one: “Race, like sex, is a subject on which it is near impossible to tell the truth.”
The next time an anthology featuring playwright’s explanations of their work is completed—heck, the next time an essay collection about race in America is completed—David Mamet’s piece from this past weekend is going to be prominently featured, I’m sure.
Few people at this point know the cunning turns and bristling dialogue in Mamet’s upcoming play, Race. But, if it’s anything like his other work (notably Oleanna, a two-character faceoff on sexual harassment, in its Broadway debut this season, a mere 16 years after it opened elsewhere), it’s likely to be provocative, even incendiary.
For now, we have the Times piece, filled with all kinds of aphorisms-in-the-making, not only the above but this one: “Race, like sex, is a subject on which it is near impossible to tell the truth.”
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