EDGE on the Net

The first play in the Atlantic Theater Company’s production of Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet... is actually a sketch about two teacher’s waxing philosophical. The actors, John Pankow and Rod McLachlan, are in fine form as they stutter-stop through David Mamet’s wonderful clipped dialogue and brutish cynicism. There are clever lines, and it’s an enjoyable piece of pessimistic fluff.

Unfortunately, "School" is only ten minutes long, disappointing in its scope, and more of a "skit night" bit than anything else. That’s the good news. "Keep Your Pantheon," the second play, is about an hour in length and breaks the one rule of comedy that always needs to be enforced: It’s not funny. The spoof of a washed-up comedy group in Ancient Rome doesn’t have a single joke funnier than that pun of a title, and resembles, at best, Mamet doing a bad Mel Brooks’ parody.

Don’t blame the actors; they’re all spot-on, particularly Brian Murray as lead loser Strabo. Watching the plot of three men trying to wrangle their way out of rent, avoid execution, and seduce boys is nothing new, and Mamet doesn’t seem to know or care. By the time the dildo gags begin, you know it’s time to call it a night -- and that’s within the first ten minutes. Director Neil Pepe doesn’t add anything outside of the lines for the actors to use, and the droll sets by Takeshi Kata are probably meant to look amateurish; if so, it’s an ironic backfire.

Unlike previous Mamet works like American Buffalo and the Pulitzer prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, you won’t be contemplating the world around you as you exit the theater. The big question that emerges from Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet... is how someone so good could be so bad, and, more disturbingly, why the playwright, or anyone else, would want to showcase the play for a paying audience.

If, as I suspect, enormous fame translates to getting any nonsense you whip out produced, then Mamet has provided the most disturbing premise since that bitingly cynical, show-biz send-up, his own Speed-the-Plow.

Through November 1, 2009 at the Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011. For more information visit the Atlantic Theater Company website.