STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: THEATER - “A Life in the Theatre”

All photos can be found on Broadway.com from the 2010 revival performed during 2010-2011

There’s a sense of familiarity among co-workers if you’ve worked with them for a while. It ranges from peaceful to downright dysfunctional. The theatre workplace is no different..

Written by David Mamet, A Life in the Theatre is about just that: two actors, a veteran actor Robert and young actor John, and their relationship working together both on and off stage.

It’s clear that they’ve worked together on multiple shows since the play sporadically shows scenes of them acting in a different production, such as an office, war trenches, “the famous lifeboat scene”, surgery room, etc.

I’ve never seen any production of the show, but as a script to read, it goes by so fast. There is no traditional three-act structure; in fact, there are not acts. The entire play is comprised of 26 scenes. The shortest scene lasts one-half of a page (based on my copy.)

Something that should be noted is that there isn’t really a plot in this play. A Life in the Theatre features a series of small moments between these two actors, some of which seem so mundane, you’ll wonder why it was ever needed. But I think showing these mundane moments is the point of the play.

I discovered the play after going through a brief David Mamet craze, and it also helped that the play was about actors.

A series of scenes with no discernible plot can have mixed reaction from audiences. Is it genius, or is it wasting time? Well, that’s up to your preference.