Glengarry Glen Ross

Love the play! The play had great pace and energy! The set of the Chinese restaurant was not cheap and seedy enough - these dives of the 70's were really dark, smelly and smokey cramped interiors most of the time - this restaurant was too elegant. The offices were made messy but again did not convey that cramped, very smokey, pokey feeling - five desperate men all holed up and stuck together with this testosterone flying around - all trying to make a break and crack their leads!! Floor needed to look dirtier and disgusting looking so garbage on desks and floors didn't do it for me! All the actors were wonderful but of course 2 were amazing for me and they were Townsend and Glenister whom I thought knocked it on the head - Townsend was supremely fabulous vocally and physically - he drew you in with such power and yet subtlety - vulnerable and powerful moments moved me at a blink of an eye - so desperate one minute and then a total shit the next...His US accent was formidable and perfectly pitched - Jack Lemmon would have been proud! Glenister was strong and moving - flawless accent and carried himself so well and I think these 2 actors understood the pace and the US carriage and comportment the best - the weakest link for me was Kris Marshall - his accent was uneven and of course one remembers the great Kevin Spacey in that role who was so amazing. Christian Slater held his own and was strong but when one remembers Al Pacino in this role it's very difficult to move away from that. Pacino will forever be the benchmark for greatness!!

I have a mixed relationship with Mamet; there aren't many male voices like him. His all-male ensemble in Glengarry Glen Ross may seem outdated but it is a production about masculinity, and men are at their most masculine with other men. Stanley Townsend as Shelley Levine gives a physical quality Jack Lemon never did. You can believe Levine was the alpha male and it makes his subsequent downfall even more heartbreaking, even though his downfall is his own making. He couldn't keep up the man he made a success; Christian Slater's Ricky Roma. Slater's authentic Americaness can sometimes be difficult for the other actors. Don Warrington and Robert Glenister shine in their two hander in the first half and lose their way in the second. Any faults with the production come from Mamet, it is short running length keeps us in the moment but the lack of background makes it hard to understand where the characters are coming from (Why is Kris Marshall's Williamson playing the victim when he creates their destiny) or where they are going.

Glengarry Glen Ross saw some very fine acting performances, particularly from Christian Slater and Stanley Townsend. I was however shocked to learn that first act was only 35 mins in length. Just as I was getting into the play, the interval happened. The second act is only 50 mins so it's very short overall. I found the play to be quite hurried and rushed and not up to the same standard as the excellent movie. However, the acting and writing were top quality so worth seeing from that perspective!

Great writing, christian slater was great. It didn't need an interval at all, they should have pushed though to make it just one act of 90 mins.

The acting was absolutely incredible and the intricacy of body language changes and small twitches etc was really clever. The set was also excellent. However, the show itself and the story were unfortunately rather poor. The story is such that it is impossible to like any of the characters and therefore I couldn't really invest in the story at all. The humour was very crass and lacked subtlety, and the whole thing was very stereotypical. I think the show set out to do what it wanted to do, and the actors were doing a brilliant job, but the poor content could not be rectified.

Finally got to see my all time favourite actor and wasn't disappointed. I normally go for a musical so to see a serious play made a nice change. Great cast alongside Christian Slater, which made it very enjoyable. Was left a little miffed as it was quite a short play and the ending was a little disappointing, others around me also commented the same.

Superb stage play. Everyone was on form. Sharp delivery, energy, and pace. The time just whistled by. The real star of this though, wasn’t Christian Slater, it was Stanley Townsend awesome performance as Shelley Levene.

Glengarry Glen Ross is an okay play which lacks the kind of excitement and relevance that made it popular in the 1980s. There's still a few funny scenes where the ruthless salesmen show off their fast paced manipulation of both their clients, and each other, and Robert Glenister and Stanley Townsend are particularly entertaining in these. Overall though it lacks any kind of real excitement and having an intermission half way through such a short play really does slow the pacing down to the point that it feels like neither half ever really gets going.