Patrick Marber’s revival of David Mamet’s classic salesmen drama at the Old Vic theatre amps up the comedy but loses the darkness, according to critics. The all-female cast, a suggestion from Mamet himself, performs masculinity rather than inhabiting the roles, creating a distance that undermines the tragedy.
Indira Varma plays Levene as an apoplectic fool, lacking the compassionate dimensions Jack Lemmon brought to the role in the 1992 film. Rosa Salazar’s Roma is the highlight, a smooth wheeler-dealer who does not demand empathy. However, the relentless high energy and volume become tonally flattening.
The production does not contemporise its corporate world, leaving the purpose of the gender reversal unresolved. Critics question why the women play at being men rather than performing as female versions of Mamet’s capitalists, especially in the era of Margaret Thatcher.
