Laguna Playhouse Puts New Shine on ‘Buffalo’

The title of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” refers to a rare old nickel that’s now worth at least $90.

Mamet’s comedy is 25 years old--and revivals of it are not rare. But like the old nickel, the play is worth a lot more than its face value. While its worth may not have appreciated to the extent of that old coin’s, it certainly hasn’t depreciated, either.

Judging from Laguna Playhouse’s taut and funny new production, “American Buffalo” remains one of the best examples of how a playwright distilled what he wanted to say about American society into a stageworthy microcosm. As the play’s three schemers bungle their small-time heist before they even arrive at the scene of the would-be crime, their words and their actions testify to a moral void that permeates the culture in which they live.

Although the play appears surprisingly timeless, director Andrew Barnicle places it firmly in the ‘70s with the appearance of David Gianopoulos as Teach, the brash burglar who is Mamet’s most articulate spokesman for the ethos of the business world.

Gianopoulos wears a fiery ‘70s shirt and tight black pants, designed by Richard Odle, and struts about his cohort Donny’s little junk shop with a swagger worthy of “Saturday Night Fever.” In the first act, he picks up a brush from the merchandise and touches up his hair; in the second, he washes his face before he goes out the door. This Teach may not ever be able to relax enough for a good night’s sleep, but he nevertheless cares about how he looks.

His accent and attitude are a little more reminiscent of New York than Chicago, which is where the play is set, but it doesn’t matter. This production could take place in just about any American city that’s big enough to have trains like those that are heard in the intermittent rumblings of David Edwards’ sound design.

Gianopoulos comes on strong at the top of the play but finds ever new thresholds of anxiety and outrage as his performance continues.

Donny is Teach’s opposite in temperament and style, a man who reacts more than he acts. Actor Mike Hagerty has a stolid frame in contrast to Gianopoulos’ free-flowing body language, but his voice and eyes are remarkably expressive, and he is up to the challenge of coming up with a dozen subtle differences in the way he says some of the same things over and over.

As Bobby, the young man who serves as an apprentice criminal and almost as a son figure for Donny, Joshua Hutchinson has the right look, alternately eager to please and haunted, befitting a junkie. The text doesn’t delve deeply into Bobby’s addictions, so it’s up to the actor to suggest some of the desperation that isn’t in the play’s otherwise very graphic lines, and Hutchinson makes it work.

Odle designed a consummate junk shop, making all the funnier a couple of the lines in which characters make plans to clean it up. This place will never be clean.

You can take that figuratively as well as literally--Mamet is saying that the profit motive has an inherent capacity for abuse. His characters talk a lot of blather about rules and loyalty and also about knowing what they’re doing. But the words are hot air--and all the more amusing because of it--next to the reality of their venal way of life.

* “American Buffalo,” Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends with the matinee July 1. $34-$43. (949) 497-ARTS. Length: 2 hours.

David GianopoulosTeach

Mike HagertyDonny

Joshua HutchinsonBobby

Written by David Mamet. Directed by Andrew Barnicle. Set and costumes by Richard Odle. Lighting by Paulie Jenkins. Sound by David Edwards. Production stage manager Nancy Staiger.

1 LINE CAPTION FOR SHIRLEY PHOTO OF GIANOPOULOS AND HAGERTY