Mamet's "American Buffalo" delivers goods at TheaterWorks

HARTFORD- Unlike TheaterWorks usually minimalist sets, the stage in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” is strewn with junk that makes the set of the television show “Sanford and Son” look like a church.
Ice skates, lamp shades, typewriters, sewing machines, and old books litter the junk shop set and compete with the three actors for space.
This is a world of dog-eat-dog questionable business, where three losers, each with their own special brand of glaring dysfunction, take a possible robbery and turn it into a mess. Let’s just say, “Ocean’s 11” this isn’t.
The first play that put Mamet on the map, produced in 1975, “American Buffalo” is set in Chicago, where three men hatch a desperate plan to steal a coin collection from customer.
John Ahlin plays the shops’ owner, Donny Dubrow, as a walrus-eyed, spastically gesturing elder, who in his own way is endeavoring to impart his business acumen on the simple younger Bobby, Zachary Spicer, a greasy-haired, slow but sweet kid.
Ahlin gracefully transitions from lecturing Bobby about eating breakfast “the most important meal of the day” to coldly dismissing him, when he is persuaded to drop him from his poorly planned fiasco.
In pops the hyperbolic, quixotic, sleazy, and slick Walter Cole, nicknamed Teach, played by Andrew Benator, in what has to be one of the most audacious entrances ever, he launches into a relentless and amusing diatribe about a slight just he received for eating someone else’s piece of toast.
Working himself into a frenzy of fury, the kinetic Teach finally blurting out, “The only way to teach these people is to kill them.” He then just as quickly tells Donny he wants bacon and doesn’t eat cantaloupe because it gives him the runs.
The play percolates along with only occasionally self-conscious staging but overall solid directing by Steve Campo.
As in most of their productions, Campo, TheaterWorks executive director gives a dry and witty introduction before the start of the play each night.
True to form Before this play he warned audiences if they wished not to hear profanity they should have the audience member behind them put their hands over their ears for the entire show.
This warning is no exaggeration — with every third word or so a swear of one kind or another, making this show clearly not for children.
In act two the play immediately escalates into a much more high-stakes game as tensions mount and the heist is on, sort-of. Set in a time of the rotary phone, one forgets what tensions those painfully slow dials could create.
The quick, sparing dialog of “Mamet-speak” is like a relentless shot of adrenaline. At one point after Teach throws a temper-tantrum and trashes his business, Ahlin’s Donny says to Teach in calm exasperation “You tire me out, Walt.” A feeling at this point in the play we can all relate to.
Mamet’s masterful play requires a high level of theatrical dexterity and continuity to deliver the goods, a requirement that the stellar cast of “American Buffalo” achieves.
If you see anything on the stage you might want, TheaterWorks is going to hold auction on Sunday, Oct. 25 after the matinee show at about 7:30 p.m. Everything on the set is going to go, including some nice items.
Local radio and columnist Colin McEnroe will be hosting the event. Admission is $24.

3 1/2 Stars
Theater: TheaterWorks
Location: 233 Pearl St. Hartford.
Production: Written by David Mamet. Directed by Steve Campo. Set design by Adrian W. Jones. Lighting Design by Matthew Richards.
Running time: 2 hour, 30 minutes, plus a 15-minute intermission
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays — 8 p.m. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays — 2:30 p.m. Extra Sunday evening shows — 7:30 p.m. The show will run through Oct. 25.
Tickets: Unassigned seating is $38; $48 on Friday and Saturday nights. Center reserved seats $12 extra. $12 student rush tickets at showtime with valid ID (subject to availability). For tickets call 860-527-7838 or visit their website at www.theaterworks.org.
ACTOR…CHARACTER
John Ahlin … Donny Dubrow
Zachary Spicer … Bobby
Andrew Benator … Walter Cole (Teacher)