David Mamet being the playwright of choice for the San Francisco American Conservatory Theater, (A.C.T.) his “Speed the Plow,” directed by Loretta Greco, has showered audiences with a fun and refreshing run, closing to the full house last weekend. In this sharp, dense, jittery and profoundly psychological satire, with Mamet’s signature un-p.c. language and electrifying dialog, he pits a suppressed desire of an “old whore” of a Hollywood producer to “do good” against an iron will of an aspiring industry worker who presents herself as an ultimate do-gooder. While Charlie Fox (performed by Andrew Polk) is excitedly contemplating his sure-fire multimillion project of a prison buddy movie with his buddy Bobby Gould (Matthew Del Negro) who is also his superior and a major decision-maker on the outcome of movie projects, a mousy temp, named Karen (Jessi Campbell) finds her uncanny shortcut into the world of Hollywood mechanics. Coming to Bobby’s place at night to discuss her own idea of a movie project, Karen knows which buttons to push, and how many layers of cynical rust to remove to expose a trembling soul crying for help inside the hardened Hollywood career builder, who habitually says trust me when he means f..k you. Using her “not a floozy” looks, her newly-found passion for a random book she just read at Bobby’s request, and the all-time favorite references to God, Karen finds this mousy soul of an industry tiger sometime before the other shoe drops, and preaches to it to be good, conscientious, and God-fearing. In all this misty teary b.s.-tting, it almost gets lost on Bobby that the outcome will divert the money flow from his chosen buddy movie project to the one Karen roots for and would profit from. That is, until the light of day brings back Charlie, too rotten an old whore to know a rival when he sees one. The author’s message, flawlessly delivered by the cast: if while building a successful old whore career you are suddenly overwhelmed by a desire to do good, fight it.
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