David Mamet’s Pulitzer-Prize winning morality play is revived with the clarity and intensity it deserves by ABE. There is no misdirection as the staccato barrages of words that dictate this play’s world are delivered with the force of jackhammers.

It’s a world peopled by cut-throat Chicago real estate salesmen scratching for the one sale that will keep them on top – or keep them from being fired, as in the case of has-been huckster Shelley Levene. All seems well after Levene lands a big contract, but is it? A burglary and subsequent revelations provide the answer.

Mamet’s dialogue in Glengarry Glen Ross is a profane poetry which attacks an American culture where men must lie, cheat, and steal to survive.  It also defines characters and creates dramatic tensions, and those who approach this play without that understanding will fail to sell the story.

Director Don Griffiths closes the deal with a production that allows Mamet’s distinctive language to shine. The staging keeps the simple boundaries of Mamet’s script intact – a Chinese restaurant is the setting for Act I, while a sparse real estate office greets us in Act II. Griffiths and set designer Paul Gatrell have ingeniously added a large chalkboard backdrop with sales figures and the admonition “Always Be Selling.”  That coupled with the clock works overhead clearly frames the show.

The play’s intensity is provided by Griffiths' well-cast ensemble. Just as when he played Teach in ABE’s 2001 production of Mamet’s American Buffalo, Bill Feehely attacks the part of top-flight salesman Richard Roma with all of his considerable acting skills. Watching him with one of his confused and anxious clients, played convincingly by Todd Seage, you believe Roma would sell his children for first position on the sales board as his double-dealing catches up to him.

Levene is played to insecure perfection by Timothy Orr Fudge. Fudge, a performer well-known here for his musical gifts, instinctively understands when to strike the right notes of desperation with his character.

Brock Hart’s John Williamson is a sales manager whose journey from glorified clerk to power player is interesting and believable. Olivier Leroux and Jeff Lewis provide some of the play’s best laughs in their roles as salesmen in Williamson’s office, and David Berry is appropriately authoritative as the police detective Baylen.

There’s an old Steve Miller lyric that goes, “Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.” As Glengarry Glen Ross’s characters desperately slip into a troubled future, we’re actually affected by the carnage created from a win-at-all-costs mentality. That’s not just a tribute to Mamet’s modernistic writing – it’s also a sign that ABE has succeeded in breathing fresh life into this twenty-year-old play.

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