Mamet, Dammit

Playwright David Mamet is involved in a bit of a brouhaha.  His new deal for putting on one of his plays involves a heavy fine if there's any official "talk-back" within two hours of the performance.

Talk-backs are often quite-popular discussions and analyses of the play just seen, led by people who represent the theatre that put on the production, often people with certain expertise.

I'm with Mamet.  He's been criticized as stifling free speech, but that's got nothing to do with it.  You could just as easily say a playwright stifles free speech during the two hours his play is performed.  Mamet simply wants the show he wrote to be the end of it, not part of a night where the second act is a discussion.  It's as if before he wrote "The End" he put in "The curtain falls and nothing else happens afterwards."

People are still free to talk about his play as much as they want, even immediately afterwards--but in a bar, or restaurant, or a car, or on the street--just not as part of the theatrical experience.  Even if many find these talk-back edifying, or a perk of play-going, it's Mamet's call.  If he doesn't want them, then it's the theatres decision whether or not to put on his play.

I'm reminded, in a way, of a rerelease of the Richard Lester film A Hard Day's Night some years ago, starring, of course, The Beatles.  There was one song Lennon and McCartney wrote for the movie that didn't make it in--"I'll Cry Instead."

So the people who rereleased the film decided to make a video of the song, using photos from the film, and tack it on to the start in every theatre showing the film.  I have no doubt Richard Lester, if he heard of this, must have hated the idea.  The original film has a great beginning, an outburst of energy scored by the title tune.  Now, the audience would get a preview of another Beatles' song, with all sorts of shots they're about to see, weakening the effect of the opening, and perhaps the entire film.

If Lester had the legal power (which I assume he didn't), he would have put a stop to it.  Playwrights have a lot of power in the theatre.  They can demand none of their lines be changed, as well as other specifications.  Mamet is just extending that a bit to make sure the play has the effect he hoped for.