speed-the-plow

at the Playhouse on Saturday 26th February 2000

Gould (Mark Strong) is production manager of a Hollywood production company - not a particularly large or unique company, just another one amidst the many in the movie-obsessed town of Hollywood. Gould and his friend and fellow employee Fox (Patrick Marber), aspire to make lots and lots of money. When a famous screen actor turns up on Fox's doorstep offering to make a movie for them, the dollar signs spring into Fox's eyes, and Gould frantically phones the big boss to get clearance for the unashameably clichéd but sure to be popular 'prison movie'. However, when Fox bets five hundred dollars that Gould will not be able to get the attractive temp into bed, the project somehow backfires, as the not so naive Karen (Kimberly Williams) shows a sudden enthusiasm for a script about 'radiation, and persuades Gould to make the dud movie instead of the sure success.

The play gauges the changing dynamics between the three characters within three surprisingly short scenes. The swiftness with which friends become enemies and strangers become lovers exposes the ruthlessless of this superficial glossy society, while the multi-layered dialogues between the characters are illustrative of the hidden motives and agendas that propel everyone's actions. The script is fast-paced and hard-hitting, and words that matter one minute are thrown away or contadicted in the next sentence. Gould wants money, but then he 'only wants to do good'. Carried away by the fictional dialogues of endless scripts the characters seem to have lost sight of what is real and what is not. When Fox punches Gould suddenly, after a tirade of anger at his friend's shortightedness, the action seems misplaced, as if it had jumped right out of a cheesy action movie and should not happen here in the theatre.

A fashionable set makes for minimal scenery, with a shiny office as the setting for Gould's business deals, and a vast painting of wild cats making the backdrop for his flat, Gould's unpainted office symbolic of the state of transition which afflict the people living in a town where you are popular one minute and 'no-one will touch you' the next. Mark Strong makes a sleek Gould with a well-cut suit and a suave manner, although he is not quite convincing as the 'sensitive' type that he sees himself as in the second scene. Fox is a sweaty desperate man, yearning for wealth but clearly ithout the brilliance to get it. Meanwhile Kimberly William sways between the naive and the wordly, giving a skilful and ambiguous performance which never lets us in on her innermost thoughts.

Mediocre, but moderately entertaining.

Jane Labous

25/02/2000