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Mamet argues poetry in plays is not enough

Mamet argues

Playwriting is a young man’s – and, of late, a young woman’s – game. It requires the courage of youth still inspired by rejection and as yet unperverted by success. Most playwrights’ best work is probably their earliest. Those prejudices of anger, outrage and heartbreak the writer brings to his early work will be fuelled by a passionate sense of injustice. In the later work, this will in the main have been transformed by the desire for retribution.

Then he argues

1. Plays are written to be performed. This may seem a tautology, but consider: description of the character’s eye colour, hair colour, history and rationale cannot be performed. An actor can perform only a physical action. Any stage description more abstract than “she takes out a revolver” cannot be performed. Try it.

2. In a good play, the character’s intentions are conveyed to the actor, through him to his antagonist, and through them, to the audience, through the words he speaks. Any dialogue that is not calculated to advance the intentions of the character (in the case of Othello, for instance, to find out if his wife is cheating on him) is pointless. If the dialogue does not advance the objective of the character, then why would he say it?

And concludes

Without intention, vehement intention, there is no drama, in life or on the stage. And so, even if the speech were poetry, to what purpose?

Maybe Mamet is right and every line has to drive the action in the well made play, but I can’t help but think there are some times room for other things. Things which show us or the characters that we are human and perhaps that some times includes poetry, as well as song, music or other uniquely human attributes.

December 11, 2005 | Filed Under , writing 

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  • About me

    I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.

  • Recent Work

    Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).

  • Nakamitsu

  • Yellow Gentlemen