'Glengarry Glen Ross' review — Indira Varma and Rosa Salazar lead a dynamite all-female cast

Read our review of David Mamet's play Glengarry Glen Ross, directed by Patrick Marber, now in performances at the Old Vic to 18 July.

Summary

• Glengarry Glen Ross is revived at London's Old Vic
• Patrick Marber directs an all-female version of David Mamet's play
• Indira Varma is outstanding as veteran salesman Levene
• Rosa Salazar is excellent as hotshot hustler Roma

David Mamet’s rabidly competitive Chicago real estate salesmen are back – with a twist. A year after directing a starry production of Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway, Patrick Marber repeats the feat at London’s Old Vic, but with a radical all-female cast. So, just how does this portrait of 1980s machismo fare now that women are in those iconic roles?

Curiously, Mamet’s language is unchanged, meaning we still have male names, pronouns and points of reference (such as “My balls feel like concrete”). That strands this experiment in limbo: it’s not using cross-casting as overt, wry commentary on bumptious masculinity, à la Operation Mincemeat, nor is this a fresh version of the story centring on women in the workplace, perhaps adopting male swagger to get ahead. It’s hard to fully buy into the characters as authentic 1980s specimens, or to see them as contemporary archetypes.

However, if we accept this purely as a means to allow fantastic actresses to sink their teeth into these roles – and to prove that they are equally adept at mastering the distinctive rapid-fire rhythms of Mamet’s language – then it’s a cheer-worthy enterprise. Too many works in the canon are male-centric; this is one, if imperfect, solution.

In fact, it’s worth it alone to see the always-wonderful Indira Varma give us a heartbreaking portrait of old-timer Shelly “The Machine” Levene, once a hotshot salesman, now stuck in a losing streak that he cannot conceal, no matter how much of a performance he puts on. Varma is by turn blustering, wheedling, and furiously indignant, barrelling between emotional and physical extremes – from a shining moment of triumph, her whole frame suddenly animated, to quiet despair, her body collapsing in on itself.

Excellent too is Rosa Salazar, giving us a fascinatingly seductive version of sleazy hustler Ricky Roma. Salazar, vampiric in a black leather trench coat and slicked-back hair, expertly reels in her latest victim, the timid James Lingk, in a scene that is far more sexually charged than usual, then emotionally manipulates poor Lingk (an affectingly fearful Mercedes Bahleda) when he attempts to wriggle free.

The strong company also features Dorothea Myer-Bennett’s icily venomous martinet of an office manager, and Niky Wardley’s hot-headed, big-mouthed salesman Dave Moss, the latter forming a brilliant comic double act with Nancy Crane as panicky colleague Aaronow, the world’s worst liar. The cast collectively has a strong handle on Mamet’s battle for verbal dominance.

Marber’s in-the-round staging (with slick, minimalist design by Rob Howell) effectively draws us into this competitive cauldron, where every win feels life-affirming and every loss is an existential threat. “A man is his job,” poor Shelly professes, articulating how much his identity is bound up in professional success – a tragic statement given that he is trapped in an increasingly inhuman bureaucratic system.

Does Mamet’s portrait of merciless capitalism hit as hard now? Well, we are in the age of tech bros, online scams, and Trumpian politics, plus influencers whose jobs and personal lives are almost entirely blurred. Yet despite its fresh casting approach, this production is pretty firmly rooted in the past. But if it’s not as bold conceptually as it might be, the dynamite female company does seal the deal.

Glengarry Glen Ross is at the Old Vic to 18 July. Book Glengarry Glen Ross tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Glengarry Glen Ross (Photos by Manuel Harlan)