Culture
ABC Players’ production of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ highlights the play’s relevancy, even 40 years after its debut
By: Emily Votaw
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NELSONVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) – David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross offers a searing and tragic look into the dark underbelly of American capitalism, unfolding over two intense days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents struggling to survive in the cutthroat world of the early ‘80s.
The real estate agents lie, manipulate, and throw each other under the proverbial bus at every chance they get, all in an attempt to survive in a hostile world which grows no less hostile for the sake of their efforts.
TJ Johnston directs the ABC Players’ production of the play, opening Friday at Stuart’s Opera House (52 Public Square).
Although Glengarry Glen Ross may at first appear to be devoid of characters the audience can sympathize with, Johnston challenges audiences to reconsider that reaction.
“I feel like nearly any of us are maybe one economic disaster away from being these characters, quite frankly,” Johnston said. “These are definitely desperate people who are put in these positions, not because they made bad choices, but because of the system that they’re forced to participate in.”
Jeroch Carlson takes on the role of Shelley Levene in this production, bringing a unique perspective to the part.
Offstage, Carlson is a real-life salesman, working for Appalachian Renewable Power. Yet his day-to-day experience couldn’t be more different from the cutthroat, deceitful world Levene inhabits.
Carlson points out many contrasts between the two, with the most significant being his approach to customers. While Carlson spends a lot of time educating potential customers, Levene exploits their lack of knowledge, manipulating them into decisions that serve his own interests.
“I’ve had to kind of turn my kindness emotion off to portray this character because he’s very cutthroat and willing to essentially do anything to prevent his own demise,” Carlson says. “And for me, that has been an interesting process, to say the least.”
Brittan Posey, who portrays James Lingk in the production, believes the themes of desperation and the ruthless nature of capitalism explored in *Glengarry Glen Ross* remain strikingly relevant today—despite appearing, at first glance, somewhat different from the issues of the 1980s
“Capitalism is alive and well,” he says. “Skeezy salesman techniques have not gone away just because pyramid schemes are illegal. They just call them something else now.”