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David Mamet - A Life in the Theatre
By Ira Nadel
Methuen Drama £25
278 pages
Dateline: 19th October, 2008
The image on the front cover depicts half of the face of the subject
of Ira Nadel's biography. This might well be an example of unconscious
symbolism, since the book only really tells half of the story of David
Mamet's life.
There is a gaping lacuna at the centre of this life, as despite a visit
to a synagogue with Mamet and his second wife, the actress Rebecca Pidgeon,
it is abundantly clear that the playwright and filmmaker did not contribute
in any significant way to its creation.
What that leaves is a work of great scholarship but limited insight.
Professor Nadel has trawled through an awful lot of Mamet's work and
put together a picture of the career and an analysis of the plays and
films. He has been greatly helped by the fact that his subject is introspective,
writing about himself and his views on a constant basis.
Professor Nadel and his editor do themselves few favours with many
examples of sloppiness in either the writing or the editing. There are
numerous typographical errors and it seems as if the book was probably
completed and then subsequently rewritten. As a consequence, this biography
has the feel of a series of lectures or essays, with regular repetition
of information sometimes within the same paragraph and frequently on
the same page making it hard going.
It seems hard to believe that the editor, clearly not a theatre aficionado,
did not either read the book from start to finish in its final version
or do any kind of detailed check on facts and the names, for example,
Conor McPherson's The Seafarer is renamed Seafarers, while
Mamet's early play is referred to as The Duck Variations in the
early stages of the book and then later on with the more commonly used
title ignoring the definite article.
Having said all of that, this is apparently the first full biography
of David Mamet and, as such, is welcome as a summary of his working
life. The writer takes a very academic line, cross-referencing almost
every statement to its original source, which demonstrates thoroughness
and will help students or future biographers to discover more detail
about the subject.
The book covers everything from David Mamet's early days through his
work as a playwright, director and theatre educator to the books and
film work that followed.
In addition to summarising his subject's work, the Professor of English
at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver goes off into byways
of Mamet's life such as his return to Judaism and love for both weapons
and tricks of every kind.
It would be great to be able to recommend David Mamet - A Life in
the Theatre wholeheartedly as the definitive work on the subject
and at the moment, it might just be that. However a man whom his biographer
perhaps rather ambitiously likens to Graham Greene in terms of literary
fame will surely eventually either write an autobiography or authorise
somebody to tell his life and give them time and access to tell the
whole story.
Philip Fisher
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