Glengarry Glen Ross
David Mamet · 1984
Four real estate salesmen will do anything to close deals and avoid getting fired. Mamet's ear for the rhythm of desperate, profane American speech is on full display. The Pulitzer committee gave it the prize in 1984. The film version added Alec Baldwin's "coffee is for closers" speech, but the play doesn't need it.
The case against
Mamet's dialogue is scored, and on the page without actors the score can read as tic: interruptions, repetitions, profanity arranged like drum notation. The plot is one office burglary and one slip of the tongue. Women exist offstage as wives and marks. You can read it in an hour; whether you should read rather than see it is a fair question.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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