David Mamet

American Buffalo David Mamet First edition

Drama / Characters: 3 male

Scenery: Interior

Best American Play, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award during the 1976-77 season, this volatile drama starred Robert Duvall in the original Broadway production and has seen revivals with Al Pacino and most recently on Broadway with John Leguizamo in 2008. In a Chicago junk shop three small time crooks plot to rob a man of his coin collection, the showpiece of which is a valuable "Buffalo nickel". These high-minded grifters fancy themselves businessmen pursuing legitimate free enterprise. But the reality of the three- Donny, the oafish junk shop owner; Bobby, a young junkie Donny has taken under his wing and "Teach", a violently paranoid braggart- is that they are merely pawns caught up in their own game of last-chance, dead-end, empty pipe dreams.

"Gripping drama"-The New York Times

"Mamet is an actor's playwright...[He] senses the possibilities inarticulateness affords a savvy actor."-Women's Wear Daily

"It isn't often that a play with a dramatic intensity of American Buffalo comes to the Broadway theatre."-New York Post