Impressive Acting of a Nasty Play

“It’s not a world of men — it’s a world of clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders. “

Richard Roma

David Mamet’s 1980s satire Glengarry Glen Ross about a Chicago firm dealing in property sales comes to the Old Vic directed by Patrick Marber who directed an all male version on Broadway in Spring 2025. The pivotal difference here is an all female cast, while retaining the original script and the names of the male roles. So the first question. Are we watching women acting as men or are we watching women with male names? Search me!

The problem here is that the firm has nothing worth selling but the salesmen are convinced that the top leads will bring them riches. In charge of doling out the leads is a non salesman, John Williamson (an admirable Dorothea Myer-Bennett) and the first scene sees John badgered at length for some top leads by fading and increasingly fraught Shelly Levene (Indira Varma but not as in the production photographs with heavy makeup and dyed hair but severely greying and less slap.)

This discussion takes place in a Chinese bar/restaurant with red tassels and Chinese lanterns. The alternative set is the office where desks rise up from the floor and the Chinese fish tanks descend. The play is set on a round stage that doesn’t revolve but despite directorial awareness of the issue, there are still scenes where you will see the back of someone’s head and be unable to see the face of the other actor. The salesmen wear grey suits, high heels and pencil skirts with a back slit for movement.

Each time John tries to speak, Shelly says, “Wait a second!”, maybe ten times, and carries right on. Shelly has had four leads but not leads of the highest quality. There 152 F . . . words in this play I am informed – I promise you I didn’t count them. The issue here is that we don’t know who to side with, the manipulative Shelley, sometimes angry, noisy or desperate who tries to win us over by saying she needs the money for her daughter or the unbudging manager who tries to broker a deal where she is both paid for the leads and gets a percentage of Shelly’s commission on a successful sale.

The scene blacks out and we switch to another pair, Dave Moss (a bighaired blonde, Niky Wardley) and less aggressive George Aaronow (Nancy Crane) who lets Moss take the lead. Moss makes a deeply racist speech about the impossibility of doing business with Polacks and Indians because they will always double-cross you. Moss then talks about her plan to steal the leads during a burglary and sell them to a rival realtor. Despite Moss’s fast talking words, George declines to commit the crime but Moss hints that she will implicate George. Why? “Because you listened.”

A second black out and we have Richard Roma (a life changing performance from Rosa Salazar) talking nineteen to the dozen persuading James Lingk (Mercedes Bahleda), a sad client, to buy from the Florida Heights brochure. James doesn’t stand a chance against the vocal battering and fast thinking sales patter. A longer black out and next day in the office, the burglary has taken place and papers rain down from the fly loft.

The burglary means the loss of Roma’s bonus and Cadillac and her anger is directed at John. James arrives needing to change his mind and Roma constructs a scene to frustrate him. Shelly arrives victorious having made a sale from a dud lead.

Glengarry Glen Ross has incredible performances from almost all of the cast but it remains a cynical, nasty reminder of the yuppie heights of greed in the 1980s under Reagan and Thatcher.