Speed-the-Plow

Speed-the-Plow
Poster for the 1988 Broadway introduction of the play
Written byDavid Mamet
Directed byGregory Mosher
Characters
  • Bobby Gould
  • Charlie Fox
  • Karen
Date premiered1988
Place premieredRoyale Theatre, New York City
Original languageEnglish
GenreDrama

Speed-the-Plow is a 1988 play by David Mamet that is a satirical dissection of the American movie business. As stated in The Producer's Perspective, "this is a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films Wag the Dog (1997) and State and Main (2000)".[1] As quoted in The Producer's Perspective, Jack Kroll of Newsweek described Speed-the-Plow as "another tone poem by our nation's foremost master of the language of moral epilepsy."[1]

The play sets its context with an epigraph (not to be recited in performance) by William Makepeace Thackeray, from his novel Pendennis, contained in a frontispiece: It starts: "Which is the most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from the struggle of life, calmly contemplating it, or he who descends to the ground, and takes his part in the contest?"[2]

  1. ^ a b Davenport, Kent. "Speed-the-Plow". The Producer's Perspective. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Thackeray, William Makepeace (1910) [1848–1850]. "Frontispiece". Pendennis. Volume 2. Everyman's Library No. 426. London; New York: J. M. Dent & Sons; E. P. Dutton & Co. Retrieved January 28, 2019.