Written by David Mamet Place premiered Broadway First performance 2012 Genre Drama | Date premiered 2012 Original language English Playwright David Mamet | |
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Setting Prison parole review office Similar David Mamet plays, Dramas | ||
Patti lupone on why the opening night of the anarchist is a homecoming
The Anarchist is a two-person 2012 play by David Mamet that opened in New York on Broadway and starred Patti LuPone and Debra Winger. The "anarchist" of the title has its origin related to and perhaps based upon members of the Weather Underground, Judith Clark and Kathy Boudin, former members of the Weather Underground, who took part in the Brink's robbery (1981).
Contents
Carrieemmy reviews the anarchist
Plot
The play is set in the office of a prison parole review officer who is seen questioning and conducting an extended interview with a long-term prisoner incarcerated for a Weather Underground-type crime during which she killed two police officers. The outcome denies the long-term prisoner access to parole based on the harsh nature of the crime and the lack of remorse shown for her crimes.
Reception
The New York production of the play was not well-received by critics. Writing in his New York Times review of 2 December 2012, Ben Brantley wrote: "Mr. Mamet has always been preoccupied with words both as power tools and as camouflage. That’s true whether the language is lowdown (as in “Glengarry” and “American Buffalo”) or high-flown (as in “Oleanna”). This has often involved a certain verbal self-consciousness among his characters. But it has never been as acute as in The Anarchist, in which both women are especially aware of words as instruments of misdirection and what Cathy calls the opacity of human motives./Theatergoers must really furrow their brows here just to follow the basic arguments, never mind the layers of motivation woven into them. And without giving away too much, I think it’s fair to reveal “Anarchist” basically concludes that all those polysyllabic words mean nothing, when you come right down to it. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. When you reach the end of Anarchist, you may feel you’ve traveled an unnecessarily winding road to get there."
Having officially opened on Sunday 2nd December 2012, producers posted closing notices the following Wednesday and cut the run short on 16 December, after only 23 previews and 17 performances.
The play opened in Madrid at the same time to positive reviews. "La anarquista" was directed by José Pascual with Magüi Mira as Cathy (the anarchist) and Ana Wagener as Ann (the prison officer).
The play had a 2015 production in Los Angeles, directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan with Felicity Huffman and Rebecca Pidgeon.