Glengarry Glen Ross

By David Mamet

Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, David Mamet's scalding comedy is about small-time, cutthroat real esate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land on reluctant buyers in a never-ending scramble for their fair share of the American dream. Here is Mamet at his very best, writing with brutal power about the tough life of tough characters who cajole, connive, wheedle, and wheel and deal for a piece of the action -- where closing a sale can mean a brand new cadillac but losing one can mean losing it all. This masterpiece of American drama is now a major motion picture starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Alex Baldwain, Jonathan Pryce, Ed Harris, and Kevin Spacey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Release date: Jul 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9780802191793

David Mamet

David Mamet’s numerous plays include Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award), American Buffalo, Speed-the-Plow, Boston Marriage, November, Race, and The Anarchist. He wrote the screenplays for such films as The Verdict, The Untouchables, Ronin, and Wag the Dog, and has twice been nominated for an Academy Award. He has written and directed ten films, including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, House of Games, Spartan, and Redbelt. In addition, he wrote the novels The Village, The Old Religion, Wilson, The Diary of a Porn Star, Chicago, and many books of nonfiction, including Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood; Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business; Theatre; Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama; and two New York Times bestsellers The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture and Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch. His HBO film Phil Spector, starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren, aired in 2013 and earned him two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing. He was cocreator and executive producer of the CBS television show The Unit and is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company.

Book preview

Glengarry Glen Ross

WORKS BY DAVID MAMET

PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS

American Buffalo

The Cherry Orchard

(adapted from Anton Chekhov)

Five Television Plays

Glengarry Glen Ross

Goldberg Street:

Short Plays and Monologues

Homicide

House of Games: A Screenplay

A Life in the Theatre

Reunion and Dark Pony

Sexual Perversity in Chicago and

The Duck Variations

The Shawl and Prairie du Chien

Speed-the-Plow

Things Change: A Screenplay

(with Shel Silverstein)

Three Children’s Plays

Warm and Cold

(with Donald Sultan)

We’re No Angels

The Woods, Lakeboat, Edmond

GLENGARRY

GLEN ROSS

A PLAY BY

David Mamet

Grove Press

New York

Copyright © 1982, 1983 by David Mamet

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or [e-mail].

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that Glengarry Glen Ross is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance, before rehearsals begin, to the author’s agent: Howard Rosenstone, Rosenstone/Wender, 38 East 29th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10016.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mamet, David.

Glengarry Glen Ross.

I. Title.

PS3563.A4345G56    1984    812’.54    83-49380

eISBN: 978-0-8021-9179-3

Grove Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

154 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

14  15  16  17      32  31  30

This play is dedicated to

HAROLD PINTER

Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross was first presented at The Cottlesloe Theatre, London, England, on September 21, 1983 with the following cast:

The U.S. premiere of the play took place at The Goodman Theatre of the Arts Institute of Chicago in a Chicago Theatre Groups, Inc. production on February 6, 1984 with the following cast:

THE CHARACTERS

Williamson, Baylen, Roma, Lingk

Men in their early forties.

Levene, Moss, Aaronow

Men in their fifties.

THE SCENE

The three scenes of ACT ONE take place in a Chinese restaurant.

ACT TWO takes place in a real estate office.

ALWAYS BE CLOSING.

Practical Sales Maxim

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

A booth at a Chinese restaurant, Williamson and Levene are seated at the booth.

Levene: John . . . John . . . John. Okay. John. John. Look: (Pause.) The Glengarry Highland’s leads, you’re sending Roma out. Fine. He’s a good man. We know what he is. He’s fine. All I’m saying, you look at the board, he’s throwing . . . wait, wait, wait, he’s throwing them away, he’s throwing the leads away. All that I’m saying, that you’re wasting leads. I don’t want to tell you your job. All that I’m saying, things get set, I know they do, you get a certain mindset. . . . A guy gets a reputation. We know how this . . . all I’m saying, put a closer on the job. There’s more than one man for the . . . Put a . . . wait a second, put a proven man out . . . and you watch, now wait a second—and you watch your dollar volumes. . . . You start closing them for fifty ‘stead of twenty-five . . . you put a closer on the . . .

Williamson: Shelly, you blew the last . . .

Levene: No. John. No. Let’s wait, let’s back up here, I did . . . will you please? Wait a second. Please. I didn’t blow them. No. I didn’t blow them. No. One kicked

Reviews for Glengarry Glen Ross

[Shady Fox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting character clash, great dialogue and tense culmination. Film adds one more great scene and is amazing all together, so it's a nice follow up after this.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not at all what I had expected (based solely on the title).

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Glengarry Glen Ross: A Play listened to the script read by a single narrator (non-Dramatized). It won a Pulitzer many consider it important, probably would be better seen on stage with actors. Foul-mouthed real-estate salesmen recount becoming "like family" with customers, while revealing the salesmen true ugly selves back at the office. Based on Mamet's own experiences. Sort of a Kitchen Confidential but less appetizing. It seems dated even for 1984, these are 1950s and 60s concerns about masculinity and the soullessness of modernity. Then again it is sort of timeless.

[wordsampersand · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Riveting stuff. The patter of Mamet's dialogue lends to tension, even if the scene may not warrant it.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

"Death of a fuckin' salesman," they call it, and when I was a younger man that might have appealed but the fact is this is just death of a salesman with more fuckins, so who cares?

[davadog13 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mamet is one of my favorite playwrights, I'm excited to work through more of his catalog.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Desperate real estate sales men go to any length to make a sale and earn a buck. I feel almost like this could have been a prequel to "Death of a Salesman." The dialogue is sharp and funny. It's a quick read, which I'm sure would be enhanced by seeing the film or seeing it on stage.

[jburlinson_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dedicated to Harold Pinter, Mamet's masterpiece is certainly the American version of the Britsh master's theater of malice. But where everything is innuendo in Pinter, in Mamet, it's exuberant and hammer-fisted. The play does not include the classic "always be closing" scene which gave Alec Baldwin his very best role in the movie version. And the movie took a few halting steps toward trying to make the two leading characters a bit more sympathetic. Nonetheless, this play is just this side of perfect in its ability to induce groans and guffaws in equal measure. And, in its own very dark way, it's a deeply spiritual experience as well.

[takeitorleaveit_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

root beer floats. this is a play for the ages. he shows his class and his man points rise. a classic.

[cinesnail88 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have seen this play before, but this is the first time I've read it. All I can say is that the play is best in its natural state - live, not on paper. Mamet's plays are difficult to "get" without the actors in front of you, and the dialogue can be increasingly impossible to follow.

The plot itself, once unearthed, is always a rollicking good time, and this one was no exception.

[nativeroses_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A truthful look at American capitalism and male competitiveness.