American Buffalo

Don, the owner of a one-stop-shop, is selling a valuable coin. Don thinks he’s made a great deal. Don is wrong.
Walter wants in on the planned robbery. Walter thinks he knows it all. Walter has a hidden agenda.
Bobby is Don’s not-so-smart assistant. Bobby is submissive and wants to indulge his boss at any cost. Bobby is brilliant at ruining everyone’s plans. American Buffalo, a text that revolutionized American theatre through its daring language, rebuilds an authentic tragic-comical micro-universe of neighbourhood anti-heroes in a dynamic, magnetic dialogue-based interaction. David Mamet’s characters fit the typology of “losers” playing “villains” or superficial thieves feeding their dreams with more or less realistic ambitions; yet, beyond the acts of cruelty (both their own, and of the world they live in), the text also leaves room for a bit of humanity which reveals the glitches of a sad destiny that marked a whole generation. Drawing inspiration from the American imaginary riddled with post-apocalyptic western film elements, director Eugen Gyemant devised a “bandits game” between adult-children with an unexpected twist, set in a junk-yard.

‘American Buffalo is a noir story about the life of three homeboys, hating each other and struggling to survive, a play amalgamating all the naivety, tenderness, violence and bubbling humour that human beings are capable of, a play about a rainy night when they must face reality and accept who they really are. Under the cinematographic-like surface of an incident about the mafia, the show reveals a biblical parable. We live under the impression that our relationships are relatively stable, that we know each other or at least our own selves, but things can pick up speed at any time and, in just a few hours, reveal our true tragic position relative to each other. The rhythm goes wild, as in a roller coaster you can’t get off, bringing the friendship between three men to a critical point, while one’s own salvation can only come from accepting the other.’ – Eugen Gyemant, director