This is basically fourteen short scenes of two old men sitting on a park bench vaguely discussing a variety of topics, with the self-assured ignorance of stereotyped "set-in-their-ways" old men, and somehow always ending up coming back to talking about ducks. They run a gamut of very confidently knowing nothing about oil slicks, zoos, and boats, and several angles of man's place in nature and the meaning of life. I think it's a play that probably benefits far more by being seen rather than read, as the dialogue leaves a lot of room for unspoken emotions.
My initial instinct was wondering what the point of the play was. On the surface it's just two old guys talking about life and ducks. But after time letting the hindbrain work on it, I think the reflections on life are something that everyone can relate to. Their speech and slightly derailed thought patterns are distinctly "old person" in nature, but I find myself thinking that perhaps younger (maybe disabled, or unemployed) people could just as easily be used, without much need to tweak the lines.
This was the first play in the first book of Mamet's collected plays (Methuen edition) and I'll be working through the rest of them over the coming week or two. I'm interested to see what sort of variety is to come. This is the second of his plays I've actually tackled (See previous post on Glengarry Glen Ross) and have once again come up against the problem of incomplete thoughts and sentences as a script style choice. While I did eventually start to understand the context this time, it makes the action a little bit harder to follow when dealing with the print version.
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