A ‘Plow’ That Cuts Like a Sword

Scratch a successful playwright who fell for the lure of big Hollywood bucks, and you’ll find a playwright who can’t wait to get back to the real world to write about Tinseltown’s shallowness and sleaze.

Clifford Odets did it with “The Big Knife”; John Patrick Shanley did it with “Four Dogs and a Bone”; David Rabe did it with “Hurlyburly.” It’s a long list.

David Mamet, who has made a habit of turning sleaze into poetry on stage, couldn’t resist the temptation and turned out “Speed-the-Plow,” now at the Ensemble Theatre. It’s a simple yarn about a Hollywood player on his first day as head of production at a studio. Bobby Gould knows what it’s all about, and so does his longtime friend Charlie Fox.

To make hay from their relationship, and to feather his own nest, Fox brings Gould a prison film bound to make a fortune. Gould is delighted, until a temp named Karen subs for his secretary and talks him into pitching a depressing story about the end of the world through radiation.

Following his sterling production of Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” two years ago, director Roosevelt Blankenship Jr. has again demonstrated his ease with the requirements of Mamet’s writing--the sharp tempos and musical lines that weave through the words.

But Mamet himself admits he doesn’t write well for women, and in the second act, when Gould and Karen are alone at his home, the action begins to flatten. Blankenship hasn’t been able to polish the lackluster dialogue that Mamet has given Karen, and his otherwise on-the-nose rhythms are lost, at least until the beginning of Act 3.

Allison Sie can’t be blamed for what Mamet hasn’t provided Karen. She is very good as far as the playwright lets her go. Still, the evening belongs to Randy Fine as Gould and especially to Vern Urich as Fox. There is a vivid flame underneath their obscene boorishness, a glow in their greedy hunger for what’s at the top of the heap.

Blankenship’s settings are plain-wrapped. But Mamet doesn’t need an ornate frame--just fire, and anger, and a clear vision of his intent. He gets them here.

* “Speed-the-Plow,” Ensemble Theatre, 844 E. Lincoln Ave., Suite E, Orange. Thursday-Saturday 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 19. $15. (714) 998-2670. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Randy Fine: Bobby Gould

Vern Urich: Charlie Fox

Allison Sie: Karen

An Eastern Boys Production of a David Mamet play, directed by Roosevelt Blankenship Jr. Scenic design: Blankenship. Technical direction: Marcus E. Blankenship.