American Buffalo

Aidan Gillen as Teach, Sean McGinley as Don & Domhnall Gleeson as Bob

February 13th sees the opening of the Gate Theatre’s production of Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet’s American Buffalo, which premiered in Chicago in 1975. In this darkly entertaining story, Mamet draws us into the lives of three small time hustlers inhabiting a pawn shop on the south side of Chicago and their plans to pull off a heist. Laced with comedy, wit and verbal wizardry, The New York Times in 1983 described it as “…one of the best American plays of the last decade”.

The production is directed by Mark Brokaw, who has previously directed the highly acclaimed Gate productions of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge starring Chris Meloni (2005) and The Price starring Bob Prosky (2004). Mark has also recently directed Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams for the Roundabout Theatre NY and the film Spinning into Butter starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Miranda Richardson and Beau Bridges.

The Gate is delighted to have brought together a stellar cast for American Buffalo – Aidan Gillen as Teach (Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker, for which he was nominated a Tony Award for Best Actor and Queer as Folk for the BBC, for which he was nominated a BAFTA); Domhnall Gleeson as Bob (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, for which he was nominated a 2006 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and Paul Mercer’s Studs); and Sean McGinley as Don (John Boorman’s A Tiger’s Tale and Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winner of the Palme d’Or award for Best Picture at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival).

David Mamet’s plays include: Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plough and Oleanna. He has written numerous screenplays and essays and has been described as “The finest American playwright of his generation”. In 2001 he directed Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe as part of the Beckett on Film with John Gielgud and Harold Pinter.

A play by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet

Cast & Creatives

Domhnall Gleeson Sean McGinley Aidan Gillen

Director:Mark Brokaw
Set Designer:Alexander Dodge
Costume Designer:Leonore McDonagh

Reviews

“‘The finest American playwright of his generation'”
Sunday Times

” ‘American Buffalo is one of the best American plays of the last decade'”
New York Times