Review Theatre : Dark Pony & Reunion | Acton Community Theatre | Sturdy Beggars Theatre Company | David Mamet

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The Review - THEATRE by NELL MASKELL
Published: 19 November 2009

Sarah Jane Harris

Heart-wrenching feast
of Mamet

DARK PONY & REUNION
Acton Community Theatre

THE Sturdy Beggars Group Theatre Company has created an entertaining and thought-provoking evening by mounting two early plays by David Mamet at the intimate Acton Community Theatre, an exceptional space for performing these works.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Mamet is known for creating fast-talking, foul-mouthed macho male characters, interacting in emotionally harsh situations, in a society he sees as a spiritual wasteland of ever-declining morality.
His views and terse, cryptic dialogue are exemplified in the ruthless competitiveness of the 1980s play Glengarry Glen Ross, set in a grungy real-estate office in Chicago and Speed-the-Plow, focusing on the underbelly of showbusiness.
In contrast, 1970s plays Dark Pony and Reunion concern the relationship between fathers and daughters. They are accessible, heart-wrenching, touching plays.
In the former, a father comforts his young daughter by relating a Native American legend; in the latter, we witness a conversation between Carol and her father Bernie (forerunner to Mamet’s macho characters) meeting after a 20-plus year absence. Both lonely, they grope along, trying to find ways to establish a relationship and to repair the past.
Jack Courtney and Mark Shaer (fathers) and Sarah Jayne-Harris (daughter) excellently portray the characters. The evening was a rich and fulfilling feast.
Until November 28
020 8992 4557

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