Write what you know. Teachers have been saying that for…centuries? Decades, at least. It may be one reason there are lots of plays about plays, about actors, about authors. St. Louis Actors’ Studio brings us David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, about two actors, one considerably more experienced than the other.
William Roth and Ryan Lawson-Maeske are our actors, playing, respectively Robert, the older and John, the relative newcomer. Most of the action takes place in their dressing room, which feels very right, a little shabby and make-do, courtesy of Patrick Huber, who also did the lights. They don’t know each other very well, but there is not much feeling of wanting to move it into a friendship or at least a work variation thereof. It’s more feeling each other out, egos playing games, a fair amount of bravado from Robert along with intermittent spouting of cliches, and John not rocking the boat.
But especially for Mamet, whose work (Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna and more) we’ve seen a lot of, there’s not much there there. Roth and Lawson-Maeske do good work with their material, but there’s little to make us care one way or another about these people. We never really get to know them, although some of the fast-change sequences are interesting on their own. Even the music and sound design, from director John Contini doing extra duty, is very well chosen.
But in the end, it’s not enough to overcome the script. This is relatively early Mamet, but not up to what he has shown himself to be capable of.
A Life in the Theatre
through December 22
St. Louis Actors’ Studio
The Gaslight Theatre
360 N. Boyle
http://www.gaslighttheater.net/