American Buffalo

The play has a cast of three amateur criminals, losers really. Bumblers. Donny, Teach and Bobby. Donny owns what is basically a junk store. Teach and Bobby are his friends. Teach and Donny trade places in the hierarchy throughout the script; Bobby sits at the bottom. They’re planning to steal back a buffalo nickel that Donny feels he sold low to a local man.

The unseen cast, only mentioned, are a few other neighborhood losers. One of them, named Fletcher, is supposed to help get the coin that night, against Teach’s wishes. Tension, already running high, boils over when Bobby brings news that Fletcher has been mugged and has a broken jaw.

First staged in 1975, American Buffalo is timely now in its portrayal of the decline of economic show more security and opportunity for a large number of Americans. Teach: “I go out there. I’m out there every day. (Pause) There is nothing out there.” Despite their incompetent criminality, the three care for each other. They may clash verbally and even physically, but they care.

The play is currently being staged on Broadway with an outstanding cast of Sam Rockwell as Teach, Laurence Fishburne as Donny, and Darren Criss as Bobby. show less

I love this play! I was first introduced to it in an Absurdist Drama course I took and to say the least it was a depressing semester. But when we got to some American playwrights like David Mamet the language was fantastic! I love the metaphor for life as chaotic in the end and all the allusions to life crossed with business. All plays are meant to be experienced by seeing them performed but reading this play-you really get a close inspection of all the great literary devices and brilliant uses of profanity.

This was my first experience with David Mamet. I really loved his writing style and I found the premise of this play really interesting. Sometimes it was hard to follow the characters, particularly Bob, but Teach made up for that. I would really love to see the movie with Dustin Hoffman, as he seems really perfect for the role.

Sharp, uncomfortable, and wonderfully self-contained.

Don't read it unless you see the Dustin Hoffman / Dennis Franz movie first. On the page, it's nothing much; on screen, it's terrific. I saw it on Broadway with William H. Macy as Teach, but the film is better.

I really did not care for this particular play. The characters did not resonate with me and the plot-line was generally uninteresting. For this reason, the entire thing fell flat and it was a chore and somewhat of a bother to get through. I do not recommend it.

1 star.

I believe I liked this more than the Mrs. We saw an amateur production in Ohio the next day.