David Mamet © Brigitte Lacombe
Money, sex, power
BITTER WHEAT
By David Mamet (US)
2 F / 5 M
Comedy
English original text
Far out comedy about a man’s greatness and fall. Barney Fein is a powerful and depraved Hollywood film producer who devours young female talents just because he can. As the attempt to bring down his next victim fails, his collapse begins without him ever knowing it. A delirious comedy on viagra featuring aspiring artists, hard-boiled assistants and Islamist fundamentalists.
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Born in 1947, Chicago, Illinois. David Mamet is a leading American playwright whose spare, gritty work reflects the rhythms of Harold Pinter and the tough attitudes of his native Chicago. Mamet is noted for his strong male characters and their macho posturing as well as a knack for creating low-key yet highly charged verbal confrontations in a male-dominated world. This penchant has consistently made his work fodder for discussion and deconstruction as well as controversy. Beginning in the late 1970s, Mamet enjoyed a number of stage successes including AMERICAN BUFFALO about a couple of small time cons, and A LIFE IN THE THEATRE, exploring the relationship between an older and younger actor. His first produced screenplay THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1981), adapted from the novel by James M. Cain and directed by Bob Rafelson, marked an impressive screen debut. He then turned out meticulously crafted scripts for THE VERDICT (1982), with Paul Newman as a Boston lawyer on the skids, and THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987), a blockbuster update of the well-remembered TV series. Mamet made his directorial debut with HOUSE OF GAMES (1987), a slick, engrossing study of confidence trickery starring his then-wife Lindsay Crouse and Joe Mantegna. His latest work, BITTER WHEAT, opened at The Garrick Theatre in London in June, 2019.
