David Mamet’s latest play is another courtroom drama – except that it’s like no other. This is the most surreal trial since the one in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and you follow it with bizarrely opposing reactions. On the one hand, you can just laugh – often uproariously – at the escalating madness here. The judge first distracted by his hay fever and then demented by his hay fever tablets; the Jewish defendant at loggerheads with his Christian attorney; the prosecutor beset by his hysterical boyfriend. Mamet pillories every kind of political correctness. And what the hell is the case about?
On the other hand, it’s a deeply silly play. George Bernard Shaw once cautioned Frederick Ashton about the mistake of being frivolous about serious subjects. The same applies here. This court case (in ways that feel forced) is overshadowed by Middle East peace talks. Even as I guffaw at the play’s absurdities, I’m embarrassed by how trivial this context makes it feel.
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