There's an old gag in which a New York hobo accosts a tourist, to be loftily told `Neither a borrower nor a lender be - Shakespeare'. He ripostes `F. . k you - David Mamet'.
Well, American Buffalo is an early Mamet play, a pilot for the later studies of people under stress in an amoral world, with language for which he is now eminently quotable, as above. It is a crisp, wholly convincing account of a trio of small-time criminals plotting a robbery, and grips like a vice.
The three are a middle-aged owner of a junk shop, an apprentice crook and a hardened street veteran, and they plan to burgle an apartment for a collection of valuable coins. On one level they are callous, professional thieves; on another, they have values and loyalties of their own.
It is brilliantly constructed and written, a model of form and style, with dialogue straining at the leash to communicate more than the mere words. Even the profanity is a desperate sort of shorthand through which the characters may be seen in depth. Frank Coughlan is marvellous as the shop owner, a bent philosopher. Stewart Roche is the brittle hard man, and Damian McAdam the insecure youth, both excellent.
Rossa O Sioradain directs with a taut, paced rhythm which is just right to deliver this piece of classic Americana.
Continues to 15th August; booking: 01-6713387
