Speed-the-Plow
When a hugely bankable star agrees to appear in a sure-fire commercial hit, film producers Bobby Gould (Richard Schiff) and Charlie Fox (Nigel Lindsay) are convinced this is the break of a lifetime. That is until Karen (Lindsay Lohan), a temporary secretary, derails the dream. When she persuades Bobby to dump the blockbuster in favour of a story which can only be described as box-office poison, Charlie is forced to resort to desperate measures…
This brilliantly satirical portrayal of Hollywood is by David Mamet, the foremost playwright of his generation and the author of Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna and American Buffalo. A high-octane modern classic, Speed-The-Plow is filled with Mamet’s trademark wit and mesmerising dialogue.
Cast & Crew
Cast
| Bobby Gould | Richard Schiff |
|---|---|
| Charlie Fox | Nigel Lindsay |
| Karen | Lindsay Lohan |
Crew | |
| Director | Lindsay Posner |
| Lightning | Paul Anderson |
| Producer | Simon Friend |
| Producer | Danny Moar |
| Production stage manager | Howard Jepson |
| Sets and costumes | Robert Innes Hopkins |
| Sound | Andy Graham |
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Play description
Speed-the-Plow is a 1988 play by David Mamet which is a satirical dissection of the American movie business, a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films Wag the Dog (1997) and State and Main (2000).
Jack Kroll of Newsweek described Speed-the-Plow as “another tone poem by our nation’s foremost master of the language of moral epilepsy.”
The play sets its context with an epigram (not to be recited in performance) by William Makepeace Thackeray, from his novel Pendennis, contained in a frontispiece: It starts: “Which is the most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from the struggle of life, calmly contemplating it, or he who descends to the ground, and takes his part in the contest?” The character of Bobby Gould finds himself on both sides of this dilemma, and at times in the play he “stands aloof,” and at other times he “takes part” in life’s contest, with its moral strictures.
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