David Mamet – författare

Sant och falskt av David Mamet är en av vår tids mest inflytelserika böcker om skådespeleri. Här diskuteras yrket temperamentsfullt och inspirerande. Och ges utmanande och frigörande råd till dem som praktiserar yrket och dem som är på väg in i det. Mamet polemiserar mot den vedertagna undervisning (t.ex. efter Stanislavskij och Lee Strasberg), som tvingar in eleverna under en enda saliggörande metod. Mamet rekommenderar i­stället en modigt enkel och ärlig stil på scenen. Liksom han kraftfullt argumenterar mot skådespeleriets olika myter. David Mamet låter oss här ta del av en lång och vägvisande erfarenhet. Han är en av USA:s stora manusförfattare (Wag the Dog, Glengarry Glen Ross m.fl.) och har författat en lång rad essayer. Denna utgåva är den första boken av Mamet på svenska. Översättaren Gerhard Hoberstorfer är sedan 1990-talet knuten till Stockholms Stadsteater.

A big-shouldered, big-trouble thriller set in mobbed-up 1920s Chicago—a city where some people knew too much, and where everyone should have known better—by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Untouchables and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Glengarry Glen Ross.Mike Hodge—veteran of the Great War, big shot of the Chicago Tribune, medium fry—probably shouldn’t have fallen in love with Annie Walsh. Then, again, maybe the man who killed Annie Walsh have known better than to trifle with Mike Hodge.In Chicago, David Mamet has created a bracing, kaleidoscopic page-turner that roars through the Windy City’s underground on its way to a thunderclap of a conclusion. Here is not only his first novel in more than two decades, but the book he has been building to for his whole career. Mixing some of his most brilliant fictional creations with actual figures of the era, suffused with trademark "Mamet Speak," richness of voice, pace, and brio, and exploring—as no other writer can—questions of honor, deceit, revenge, and devotion, Chicago is that rarest of literary creations: a book that combines spectacular elegance of craft with a kinetic wallop as fierce as the February wind gusting off Lake Michigan.

What makes good drama? How does drama matter in our lives? In Three Uses of the Knife, one of America's most respected writers reminds us of the secret powers of the play. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, poet, essayist, and director, David Mamet celebrates the absolute necessity of drama-and the experience of great plays-in our lurching attempts to make sense of ourselves and our world. In three tightly woven essays of characteristic force and resonance, Mamet speaks about the connection of art to life, language to power, imagination to survival, the public spectacle to the private script. It is our fundamental nature to dramatize everything. As Mamet says, "Our understanding of our life, of our drama...resolves itself into thirds: Once Upon a Time...Years Passed...And Then One Day." We inhabit a drama of daily life-waiting for a bus, describing a day's work, facing decisions, making choices, finding meaning. The essays in the book are an eloquent reminder of how life is filled with the small scenes of tragedy and comedy that can be described only as drama.First-rate theater, Mamet writes, satisfies the human hunger for ordering the world into cause-effect-conclusion. A good play calls for the protagonist "To create, in front of us, on the stage, his or her own character, the strength to continue. It is her striving to understand, to correctly assess, to face her own character (in her choice of battles) that inspires us-and gives the drama power to cleanse and enrich our own character." Drama works, in the end, when it supplies the meaning and wholeness once offered by magic and religion-an embodied journey from lie to truth, arrogance to wisdom. Mamet also writes of bad theater; of what it takes to write a play, and the often impossibly difficult progression from act to act; the nature of soliloquy; the contentless drama and empty theatrics of politics and popular entertainment; the ubiquity of stage and literary conventions in the most ordinary of lives; and the uselessness, finally, of drama-or any art-as ideology or propaganda.

"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times) Speed-the-Plow sees two old-time movie collaborators manipulate the aspirations of a young woman who will do anything to attain her dream of success in "a brilliant black comedy, a dazzling dissection of Hollywood cupidity." (Newsweek)

First staged in Britain in 1983, Glengarry Glen Ross is the tale of four real-estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and was made into a film, starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, in 1992.

"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times) A junk shop. Three small-time crooks plot to carry out the midnight robbery of a coin collection. In the hours leading up to the heist, friendship becomes the victim in a conflict between loyalty and business."This play is a parable about the US - not in the journalistic way...but quietly, stealthily, with all the rich interior organisation of a true work of art" (Observer)

"An ear for reproducing everyday language has long been David Mamet's hallmark and he has now employed it to skewer the dogmatic, puritannical streak which has become commonplace on and off the campus. With Oleanna he continues an exploration of male-female conflicts begun with Sexual Perversity in Chicago in 1974. Oleanna cogently demonstrates that when free thought and dialogue are imperilled, nobody wins." (Michael Wise, Independent) In Oleanna "John and Carol go to it with hand-to hand combat that amounts to a primal struggle for power. As usual with Mamet, the vehicle for that combat is crackling, highly distilled dialogue unencumbered by literary frills or phony theatrical ones." (Frank Rich, International Herald Tribune)

Duck Variations: "A brilliant little play...about two old men sitting on a park bench discussing ducks" (Guardian); Sexual Perversity in Chicago, bar-room banter and sexual exploits in Mamet's home town "sweet sad understanding and utterly believable" (Chicago Daily News); Squirrels is a sequence of philosophising between a younger writer, an older writer and a cleaning lady which "memorably captures the agony of the creative process" (Daily Telegraph); American Buffalo, one of Mamet's most famous plays, is set in a junk shop where Three small-time crooks plot to carry out the midnight robbery of a coin collection - in the hours leading up to the heist, friendship becomes the victim in a conflict between loyalty and business. The Water Engine is "a propulsive, kaleidoscopic nightmare" and Mr Happiness is a short ironic monologue by a Radio DJ commenting on the letters from his listeners.

"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times) Reunion shows the meeting between a father and daughter after nearly twenty years of separation: "It would be hard to over-praise the way Mr Mamet suggests behind the probing, joshing family chat, an extraordinary sense of pain and loss...although the play has a strong social comment about the destructively cyclical effect of divorce, it is neither sour nor defeatist" (Guardian); In Dark Play, a father tells his five-year-old daughter a story about an Indian boy and his pony "a subtle, lyrical, dreamlike vignette" (Star Tribune); in The Woods, a young man and woman spend the night in a cabin together "a beautifully conceived love story" (Chicago Daily News); Lakeboat portrays eight crew members of a merchant ship exchanging wild fantasies about sex, gambling and violence "Richly overheard talk...loopy, funny construction." (Village Voice); Edmond is an odyssey through the disturbing, suspended dark void of a contemporary New York "it is also a technically adventurous piece pared brilliantly to the bone, highly theatrical in its scenic elisions." (Financial Times)

"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times) Glen Garry Glen Ross (also made in to a film starring Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino) "his superb play about real estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition" (New Society); in Prairie du Chien a railway carriage speeding through the Wisconsin night is the setting for a violent story of obsessive jealousy, murder and suicide, told within shooting distance of a card-hustler and his victim. "A short poignant study in violence and the twin drives of love and money, told with hypnotic power thorugh a travelling raconteur" (City Limits); The Shawl shows a clairvoyant wondering whether to cheat a bereaved woman of her inheritance and "confirms Mamet's place as about the best living writer of vivid American dialogue" (Daily Telegraph). Set in the cut-throat world of Hollywood, Speed-the-Plow sees two old-time movie collaborators manipulate the aspirations of a young woman who will do anything to attain her dream of success "a brilliant black comedy, a dazzling dissection of Hollywood cupidity." (Newsweek)

"I suspect that in time, The Cryptogram will take its place among Mamet's major works" John Lahr "Mamet's play suggests that deception is an endless spiralling process that eventually corrodes the soul. But it also harps on a theme that runs right throughout Mamet's work: the notion that we use words as a destructive social camouflage to lie to others and ourselves...And here through all the repetitions, half sentences and echoing encounter of one question with another, you feel the characters devalue experience through their use of language. As Del cries in desperation at the end, 'If we could speak the truth for one instant, then we would be free.' Mamet's point is that we are held spiritually captive by our bluster and evasions." (Michael Billington, The Guardian)"Dense with thought, feeling and hard psychological insight...There is no spare flesh on this text: words, objects, images interlock in mutual dependence which is both natural and superbly contrived." (John Peter Sunday Times)

"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times) When Bobby returns to the old neighborhood, the people and places of his past cast shadows over the present. In a trio of interleaved scenes, The Old Neighborhood provides a rare personal insight into the world of one of America's greatest contemporary dramatists.

One of America's most revered and provocative dramatists, David Mamet conquers new territory with this droll comedy of errors set in a Victorian drawing room. Anna and Claire are two bantering, scheming ladies of fashion who have long lived together on the fringes of upper-class society. Anna has just become the mistress of a wealthy man, from whom she has received an enormous emerald and an income to match. Claire, meanwhile, is infatuated with a respectable young lady and wants to enlist the jealous Anna's help for an assignation. As the two women exchange barbs and take turns taunting Anna's hapless parlour maid, Claire's young inamorata suddenly appears, setting off a crisis that puts the valuable emerald at risk and threatens the women's future."Devastatingly funny ...exceptionally clever" - New York Times "Brilliant ...One of Mamet's most satisfying and accomplished plays, and one of the funniest American comedies in years" - New York Post "Wickedly, wittily entertaining ...what makes the play such brilliant fun is its marriage of glinting period artifice and contemporary frankness" - Boston Phoenix "[Mamet's characters] are at each other's throats with a wit akin to characters out of Wilde and a vengeance not unlike those from Pinter or Edward Albee" - Boston Globe Boston Marriage was first performed at the American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June 1999.It received its British premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in March 2001.

A collection of outstanding plays from one of America's greatest playwrights Cryptogram: "Mamet's play suggests that deception is an endless spiralling process that eventually corrodes the soul. But it also harps on a theme that runs right throughout Mamet's work: the notion that we use words as a destructive social camouflage to lie to others and ourselves...And here through all the repetitions, half sentences and echoing encounter of one question with another, you feel the characters devalue experience through their use of language. As Del cries in desperation at the end, 'If we could speak the truth for one instant, then we would be free.' Mamet's point is that we are held spiritually captive by our bluster and evasions." (Michael Billington, Guardian) Oleanna: "An exploration of male-femal conflicts which cogently demonstrates that whe free thought and dialogue are imperilled, nobody wins" (Independent) The Old Neighborhood: "Mamet, ranked with Miller, Albee and Shepard as America's finest living playwrights, distills the raw, rank flavour of people wading down streams of consciousness...A play of riveting disquiet" (Evening Standard)

The first single-volume edition of this stunning early Mamet play You know how much of our life we're alive, you and me? Nothing. Two minutes out of the year. When we meet someone new, when we get married, when, when, when, when we're in difficulties...once in our life at the death of someone that we love. That's...in a carcrash...and that's it. You know, you know, we're sheltered...A fortune-teller's teasing rumination sends Edmond lurching into New York City's hellish underworld, his whole life abandoned in a searing quest for self-discovery and redemption. A furious, unflinching, whirlwind of a play first produced in 1982. "A stunning amorality play, glittering and disturbing, suspended in the dark void of contemporary New York. It is also a technically adventurous piece pared brilliantly to the bone, highly theatrical in its scenic elisions" Financial Times "A riveting theatrical experience that illuminates the heart of darkness" Newsweek Publication of this edition ties in with a production in July 2003 at the Royal National Theatre starring Kenneth Branagh.

Mamet's ground-breaking and controversial play on the male-female power struggle, annotated with an introduction, notes and commentary. "An ear for reproducing everyday language has long been David Mamet's hallmark and he has now employed it to skewer the dogmatic, puritannical streak which has become commonplace on and off the campus. With Oleanna he continues an exploration of male-female conflicts begun with Sexual Perversity in Chicago in 1974. Oleanna cogently demonstrates that when free thought and dialogue are imperilled, nobody wins." (Michael Wise, Independent) In Oleanna "John and Carol go to it with hand-to hand combat that amounts to a primal struggle for power. As usual with Mamet, the vehicle for that combat is crackling, highly distilled dialogue unencumbered by literary frills or phony theatrical ones." (Frank Rich, International Herald Tribune)

A modern retelling of the classic tale of pride, folly and the ultimate wager 'I covet fame ...Yes, I would have fame. For my works, and fame surpassing them, till Faustus's renown shines free of accomplishment.' Faustus has it all - fame, success, a loving family. But a careless wager with a beguiling magician threatens everything. In Mamet's retelling of the Faustus story a famed philosopher in the prime of life claims to have reduced the secret of life to a mathematical equation. With the arrival of a mysterious magician, he agrees to wager the life of his family on the accuracy and authenticity of his discovery. This timeless retelling of a classic legend explores one man's discovery of life's most important and fragile treasures. In language, scope and theatrical sensibility, Faustus represents a big departure for Mamet, melding resplendent language and metaphysics in an eerie and moving retelling of the tragedy of Doctor Faustus. 'The finest American playwright of his generation' Sunday Times

A student edition of Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play First staged in Britain in 1983, Glengarry Glen Ross is the tale of four real-estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and was made into a film, starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, in 1992. "The finest American playwright of his generation" Sunday Times "A chillingly funny indictment of a world in which you are what you sell" Guardian "Nobody alive writes better American...Here at last, carving characters out of language, is a play with real muscle" Observer "David Mamet, screenwriter of The Verdict and The Postman Always Rings Twice, is alongside Sam Shepard and Michael Weller, one of the most distinctive voices on the contemporary American stage" Michael Coveney, Financial Times

Exhilarating courtroom farce from America's finest playwright Romance is an uproarious courtroom farce which lampoons the American judicial system and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness. Wildly humorous and often gob-smackingly outrageous, the play is set in a modern-day courtroom in New York during a week when there are Middle East peace talks being brokered in town. The court case at hand is unrelated, but the defendant and counsel come up with a plan to solve the conflict in the region. A pill-popping judge, a defendant and lawyer (on the same side) who hate each other, and a prosecutor with a troubled personal life are part of the picture. A new comedy from 'the finest American playwright of his generation' Sunday Times'A deliriously funny David Mamet farce' Associated Press'An exhilarating spectacle. Mamet is a connoisseur of fiasco, knows all about legal punctilio, and he has great fun bringing mayhem to the ritual' New YorkerPublished to tie-in with the play's European premiere at the Almeida Theatre, opening 6th September 2005

The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, director and teacher has written a blunt, unsparingly honest guide to acting. In True and False David Mamet overturns conventional opinion and tells aspiring actors what they really need to know. He leaves no aspect of acting untouched: how to judge the role, approach the part, work with the playwright; the right way to undertake auditions and the proper approach to agents and the business in general. True and False slaughters a wide range of sacred cows and yet offers an invaluable guide to the acting profession.

Comedy Characters: 2 males, 2 females Bare stage, movable props The Obie award-winning Sexual Perversity in Chicago "takes funny and painful digs at the fantasies and distances of the contemporary sexual game," according to The New York Times. Two male office workers, Danny and Bernie, are on the make in the swinging singles scene of the early 1970's. Danny meets Deborah in a library and soon they are lovers as well as roommates. The other couple, Bernie and Joan, seem to have the politics of sex down pat but are as confused as their more naive counterparts. After much comic drama, the two men end as they started, talking a good game in the local bar. Published with The Duck Variations. "Mamet has the most acute ear for dialogue of any American writer since J.D. Salinger."-The Village Voice "Marvelously observant...A glittering mosaic of tiny, deadly muzzle flashes from the war between men and women among the filing cabinets and single bars."-The New York Times