More Mamet, Dammit!

By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 8, 2006 2:35PM

The Goodman Theatre is welcoming David Mamet back home, throwing a party to celebrate the native son, his prolific career and versatile success. Mamet’s best known as the writer of such honest, bruising work as Glengarry Glen Ross, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo, where characters fight a soul-crushing world and deliver rapid-fire dialogue, spouting salty terms like f&*#^ng c#^>$*{(~#s.

But the Pulitzer Prize winner has also written clever nostalgic s#’% like The Old Neighborhood, a return to his Rogers Park stomping grounds; the hilarious aristocratic comedy of Boston Marriage; and breakneck farce like Romance, a courtroom comedy of errors receiving its Chicago premiere next week as part of the Goodman’s David Mamet festival.

The fest kicked off last weekend with the remount, three decades after its Goodman premiere, of the 'curtain behind the curtain' drama A Life in the Theater. Three sets of Mamet one-acts will be directed by local veterans in April. For the babysitter-challenged set, there’s Revenge of the Space Pandas, or Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock, wacky and clever fun for the whole family. Rest assured Little Binky Rudolph and Bob the Sheep live in a world free of d*^&@s and c#^>$*{(~#s.

If you’re so inspired, submit your own G@%%+#& Mamet-inspired script by Friday. Goodman actors will present the top 10 entries April 6 at Subterranean. Or watch the master himself and local critic Richard Christensen discuss the good old days on March 27.

The Goodman Theatre's David Mamet Festival runs through April 23. Schedules and descriptions at the Goodman's website. We shit you not.

Image via Methuen.