Race Tickets

The play Race deals with race relations, obviously a touchy issue, and the play has proven a litmus test for many people’s feelings on race and equality. The main set up has three lawyers, two black attorneys and one white, defending a white man charged with sexually attacking a black woman. As the story progresses, the characters have to confront their feelings about race, and clearly the same will happen to audiences.

From the Pen of David Mamet

Race was written by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter David Mamet, whose many famous credits include The Verdict starring Paul Newman, The Untouchables, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, Wag the Dog, and more.

Race was also directed by Mamet, and has featured James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, Eddie Izzard, and Richard Thomas in the cast. Many acclaimed actors have starred in Mamet plays and films because of the quality of his writing, especially his dialogue, which many critics consider the best of any screenwriter / playwright (Mamet’s distinctive style is often called “Mamet speak.”). Among the actors that regularly act in Mamet’s plays include William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, and Ed O’Neill, to name a few.

Mamet has won a Pulitzer prize for Glengarry Glen Ross, and was nominated for another Pulitzer for the play The Cryptogram. Mamet has also earned Tony nominations for Speed-the-Plow and Glengarry Glen Ross, and he was also nominated for Academy Awards for The Verdict and Wag the Dog.

Topical and Sizzling

The New York Times has called Race “a topical detective story,” and the Wall Street Journal raved that David Mamet’s latest “sizzles with energy.”

Race obviously brings up sensitive and difficult issues, and plays like Race make us look at ourselves, and how we feel about things. It doesn’t bring up comfortable subjects or situations, but nor should these things be comfortable or easy to discuss.

As Mamet once said, “We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police, but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder ‘censorship,’ we call it ‘concern for commercial viability.’"

Difficult and Divisive

Race will always be a touchy subject, and Mamet clearly isn’t afraid to address it. “We Can’t Stop Talking About race in America,” headlined a Mamet article in The New York Times, and as Mamet wrote, “My current play ‘Race’ is intended to be an addition to that dialogue…It is a play about lies. All drama is about lies. When the lie is exposed, the play is over.”

As Mamet also added, “These difficult, divisive questions, like those of abortion, gun control, gay rights and illegal immigration, are and will continue to be adjudicated in the legislatures, the courts and the public consensus – until the dialogue is done.” Clearly, with someone as good at dialogue as Mamet, the dialogue is far from over, and there are few that can articulate that dialog better than Mamet.