Near-extinct buffalo nickel is subject of a flawed David Mamet play at CenterStage scheduled to run through Sunday Dec. 11.

CENTERSTAGE  PRODUCTION
FAILS TO EARN 5-STAR NOD
FROM VOICE OF BALTIMORE

Removing the F and the U

By Harvey House

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. Remove the F and the U and David Mamet would be completely lost.

Which is certainly the impression this critic had five minutes into “American Buffalo,” the current cask of holiday cheer being served up at CenterStage. It is not a play for the erudite or easily offended.

Thirty-six years ago, when “American Buffalo” premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and then went on to win Obie Awards in New York (along with Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”) for “Best New American Plays,” the playwright was hailed as a groundbreaking realist, pushing the boundaries of a society at war with itself.

But that was 1975. A lot has changed since then.

Liesl Tommy, who directed the CenterStage production, said she was drawn to this play in part because “the content is terribly relevant to what’s happening in America today.”

Really?? Try telling that to the director of a 2008 revival of “American Buffalo” that closed after only eight performances at New York’s Belasco Theatre on Broadway, despite the star power of John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer and “Sixth Sense” Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment.

SET IN A SOUTH SIDE JUNK SHOP

The play, set in a seedy South Side Chicago junk shop circa 1970, revolves around three dullards who scheme to recover a rare buffalo nickel, a coin the shop owner recently sold for $90 but now believes is worth much more.

How valuable is this coin? Who knows? Certainly not Don, the junk shop proprietor who won’t bother to crack the spine of his pristine copy of the Blue Book of U.S. Coins.

Bob, his clueless assistant? No way. The poor boy can’t get a simple coffee order right. Maybe Teach, the smalltime goon who blows through the doors like a hothouse explosion? No, he’s an “idea man.” No time to study “some coin value book.”

And so the scheme unfolds, interwoven by subplots that slowly pass like an elevated train. No doubt there’s a reason for these whistle stops, but it gets lost in all the noise.

If this production falls flat there is plenty of blame to go around. Mamet, for starters, wants us to believe there are people who live and talk like these characters. Maybe there are, but I don’t know any. Certainly not to this cartoonish extreme.

Rusty Ross (on floor) and William Hill in heavily flawed CenterStage production of David Mamet's "American Buffalo," set in a South Side Chicago junk shop, directed by Liesl Tommy. (Photo/Richard Anderson)

The set is distracting to a fault. Yes, I understand, it’s supposed to be a cluttered junk shop, but as the players continue to curse, the mind of the viewer starts to wander. It’s never a good thing for the audience to find the set more engrossing than the action.

The actors, for much of the show, are at energetic odds. At times they are simply out of control. Blame director Tommy who says, “ I am excited about working with these three gents. They all bring such a specific point of view to the work.”

Actors interpret, to be sure, but if the director doesn’t have her own unifying vision, you end up with a theatrical donnybrook, and these three needed to have the “Method” slapped out of them the day of the auditions.

The program states that, while all three players have had Broadway experience, “American Buffalo” marks their respective CenterStage premieres. Unfortunately, this is akin to saying they worked as chefs at Tavern on the Green before becoming busboys at Denny’s.

William Hill, who portrays the shop owner Don, plays his character both kind and conniving. Perhaps it is written that way, but he takes neither turn particularly well. He’s kind to Bob, then cruel, then angry, then aloof, then kind again. These two need to sit down with Maury Povich, or Dr. Phil.

To say Rusty Ross, as Bob, is wooden doesn’t really do justice to his static performance. Ross appears for most of the production as if he’s in pain — but afraid to move too much. It’s like he consumed a high fiber cereal and knows the next rest stop is another 40 murderous miles down the treeless New Jersey Turnpike.

A CAFFEINE CRAZED MUHAMMAD ALI

Jordan Lage plays the blistering blabbermouthed Teach. Lage comes out swinging and bouncing on the balls of his feet like a caffeine crazed Muhammad Ali, then continues to dance around the ring for 15 rounds as if he’s being chased by the spectre of Smokin’ Joe Frazier.

The only thing that’s missing from Lage’s often berserk, punch-drunk performance, is actual ropes and a padded turnbuckle for the actor to chew apart. Howard Cosell would have felt at home, describing the action.

“American Buffalo” is a show about the value of a nickel. If there is any lesson in the current CenterStage production, it’s “save your money.”

There are better ways to enjoy turkey during this Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

“American Buffalo” continues through December 11th in the Head Theater at CenterStage.

harvey.r.house@gmail.com

Editor’s note:  So-called “Method” acting was originated by theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky between 1911-1916 and later made famous by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg in the 1950s. Well-known practitioners of the system, which involves a progression of techniques used to train actors to evoke believable emotions, included Marlon Brando and James Dean.  Two years ago, in an article comparing politics with acting, The Wall Street Journal declared Method acting dead.     (Obies have been awarded by New York’s Village Voice newspaper since 1956 for excellence in Off-Broadway theater productions. “American Buffalo” was initially produced in New York Off-Broadway.)