Last time I saw Christian Slater treading the boards in the West End he was starring in Swimming with Sharks and the audience audibly gasped when he walked on stage. They say that familiarity breeds contempt and this time round there was only a solitary squeal as the Hollywood heartthrob was revealed by the curtain. Nevertheless Slater is no pretty boy, he has serious acting talent and he dominated the stage with a natural charm and charisma that could not be said for all of the supporting cast.Despite David Mamet's play being over thirty years old it hasn't felt more relevant. This sad tale of vulnerable people being slowly destroyed by capitalism, some as its agents others as the victims, feel eerily prescient in the post global financial crisis world. We take up the story of four real estate salesman all of whom are financially trapped in a job where the only way to make money is to make a sale no matter what the cost. To make matters worse their bosses have launched a competition where if you don't make the top of the sales league you get fired.
We follow the desperate and immoral actions of these salesman, who feel like low level henchmen of the devil, as they manipulate each other and their clients to try and break free. They are as much a victim of the system as the poor vulnerable customers they try and fleece. To lighten the dark tone Mamet deploys some sparkling witty dialogue and the interplay between Levene (Stanley Townsend, the washed up slumping sales person, and Ricky Roma (Christian Slater) the immoral huckster with some sort of heart is brilliant.
It helps a lot when your lead actors produce quality performances with the end result being another fantastic production of this classic play.
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