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American Buffalo | Introduction

Thorstein Veblen wrote that business wisdom, when reduced to its basest form, frequently resorts to "the judicious use of sabotage"—an idea that David Mamet explores in his American Buffalo. First performed in Chicago in 1975, the play made its way to Broadway in 1977. Although Mamet had already achieved some success with his Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1972) the response to American Buffalo was highly favorable, despite the occasional harsh review. Many critics applauded Mamet's ability to capture the cadences and ambiguities in everyday American speech: Newsweek's Jack Kroll, for example, remarked that "Mamet is someone to listen to. He's that rare bird, an American playwright who's a language playwright." Edwin Wilson, writing in the Wall Street Journal, stated that Mamet "has a keen ear for the idiosyncrasies and the humor of everyday speech." While some critics dismissed American Buffalo (like the New York Daily News's Douglas Watt) as "a poor excuse for a play" and (like the Christian Science Monitor's John Beaufort) "too superficial to waste time upon," most were enthusiastic about Mamet's look at the ways in which three petty crooks plan to steal a coin collection in the name of "good business."

Mamet's plays (and this one is no exception) are radically different from ones written in previous theatrical eras and periods. Characters rarely speak in full sentences and their language (depending on the topic at hand) is often a mix of half-thoughts and obscenities, making the plays—at times—difficult to read. When performed, however, these seemingly inarticulate utterances yield a rhythm found in few other playwrights' work. "Part of the fascination of the play," wrote Women's Wear Daily's Howard Kissel, lies in "noting how the same banal language takes on different colors as we perceive the changing relationships" between the characters.

The conflict explored by Mamet here is the clash between business and friendship—between a man's ethics and desire to succeed in a world where so much of the population has subscribed to a shared myth of capitalism. As one character tells his younger friend, "there's business and there's friendship"— two worlds which will be combined and then torn apart by the time the play is finished.

American Buffalo Summary

American Buffalo takes place in "Don's Resale Shop," a secondhand junk store run by Don Dubrow, the play's protagonist. When the play opens, Don is instructing Bob, his young protege, in the art of "good business." Don offers pointers and advice which Bob accepts and echoes. The two discuss last night's poker game, held in the shop, and the virtues of Fletcher, a character who is never seen but who embodies all of the values that Don is trying to impart to Bob. Don offers other fatherly advice, such as, "Never skip breakfast" and, "it wouldn't kill you to lake a vitamin." Their relationship, like that of a father and son, is thus established.

Their moment of quiet bonding is cut short when Teach, a friend of Don's, enters the shop and delivers an impassioned harangue about another friend of theirs, Ruthie, who begrudged him a slice of toast at the neighborhood diner that morning. Bob leaves to fetch the two men coffee from the same diner. Like Don, Teach offers his own personal wisdom on the topic of business and the need to keep it separate from friendship. (The "business" discussed in the play is always gambling or robbery.) When Bob returns, he speaks to Don about... » Complete American Buffalo Summary