Romance
by David Mamet

Name: Romance
Brand: David Mamet
SKU: 9780822221272
Rating: 3.27 (223 reviews)

Highlights

Small Cast

Male

120 minsInterior SetAmerican Comedy

What readers are saying

Readers have mixed feelings about the play, with many finding it funnier when performed than when simply read. While some praise its sharp dialogue and humorous take on serious subjects, others feel it lacks depth and can be overly silly. Overall, opinions are divided on Mamet's approach to farce and whether it succeeds as intended.

Sharp dialogueHilarious social commentaryFunny when performedNot deep or probingSilly more than humorous

Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize--winning playwright David Mamet's "Romance" is an uproarious, take-no-prisoners courtroom comedy that gleefully lampoons everyone from lawyers and judges, to Arabs and Jews, to gays and chiropractors.

It's hay fever season, and in a courtroom a judge is popping antihistamines.

He listens to the testimony of a Jewish chiropractor, who's a liar, according to his anti-Semitic defense attorney.

The prosecutor, a homosexual, is having a domestic squabble with his lover, who shows up in court in a leopard-print thong.

And all the while, a Middle East peace conference is taking place.

Masterfully wielding the argot of the courtroom, David Mamet creates a world in microcosm in which shameless fawning, petty prejudices, and sheer caprice hold sway, and the noble apparatus of law and order degenerates into riotous profanity.

ThemesAmerican drama PS3563.A4345 R66 2007

Press Reviews

"It made me weep with delight…ROMANCE is funny. Extremely funny.” —Wall Street Journal. ”A wild ride…An outrageous, hectic comedy composed in the hyperliterate pro-fanity that made him a legend…For fans of Mamet at his most joyfully vicious, it's everything you ever wanted.“ —New York Magazine. ”An exhilarating spectacle…[Mamet] is a connoisseur of fiasco.“ —The New Yorker. ”A fiesta of forbidden laughter…A giddy, glorious, bad-taste valentine…"
— Newsday (NY)