CityLife

Take a handful of superb actors, a cracking script, and place them in a production that drives the dialogue forward at 100 miles an hour and you get this wonderfully mesmerising dip into 1980s workplace morality. The cast take us into the lives of the self-interested, manipulative but ultimately vulnerable salesmen who circle each other in a game of "who has the biggest" (sales). Like a shiver of cannibal sharks the players circle each other, forced to lie, cheat, bribe and steal to survive. The successful prosper (or at least get a new car) whilst the weakest are cast aside.<br /> <br /> Brilliant performances all round but special mention for Richard Dormer for a magnificently snake-like Richard Roma, top salesman but worthless human being.<br /> <br /> The saddest remark of the night I overheard was as the audience left the theatre. A tired looking besuited chap in his 20s/30s turned to his companion and said "it still like that in the sales office now...." We may not all be Thatcher's children but we still walk in the landscape she created.<br />

If you judge a play by its running time then this one would be average. But on the other hand if you judged it by it’s word count this one would come out firmly on top. David Marnet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is one of the productions in the final series of plays at the Library Theatre in its current home. And this one definitely contributes to a sizzling finale.<br /> <br /> It is the story of four Chicago real estate salesman who have been told by head office that whoever tops this month’s sales chart drives home a new Cadillac. The runner-up gets a set of steak knives, and the other two get the sack. Dave Moss shines as Richard Roma, leading the hard nosed contest and the top salesman in the town. David Fleeshman plays Shelly Levene, who can still talk as fast as the best of them, but his results have been distinctly lacking of late. The talk is rough and ready, and both very funny, and very poignant in turns. This play exposes the shallow nature of the competitive edge of the capitalist system at the sharp end of the action. This is a very entertaining and thought provoking night out – and highly recommended.<br />