From left, Matt McGrath, Richard Kind, Chris Bauer, and Darrell Hammond take on David Mamet’s “Romance”
David Mamet’s play “Romance,” opened on Aug. 10 at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, with an all-star cast. Directed by Lisa Peterson, it features a Sag Harbor resident and True Blood star, Chris Bauer, Joey Slotnick, Darrell Hammond, Richard Kind, Matt McGrath, Reg Rogers, and Joe Pallister in Mr. Mamet’s courtroom farce.
The play centers around the trial of a defendant, Mr. Slotnick (“Nip/Tuck”), who has committed an unspecified crime. Mix in his anti-Semitic lawyer — Mr. Rogers — a judge with hay fever, played by Mr. Kind, and a prosecutor, Mr. Bauer (“True Blood”), who has problems with his lover, Bernard, played by Mr. McGrath, and the comedy touches on several hot-button topics.
The play is set in an unspecified city where a Middle East peace conference is also taking place, highlighting the absurd notion of believing you can achieve peace abroad when you cannot find it in smaller situations.
“It goes to the most ridiculous place to say being a racist, a homophobe, an anti-Semite is ridiculous. It’s so comical you realize how ridiculous it is,” Mr. McGrath said.
The actors, who started rehearsals on July 19, said one challenge they faced was with Mr. Mamet’s well-known language style, which is clipped and has people cutting each other off left and right.
“This is just about honing your concentration and allowing it to flow,” Mr. Bauer said. “It’s about repetition, practice. There’s no weight to the words; it’s just getting our 40-year-old brains where they should be.”
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