THEATRE + COMEDY

The Country Playhouse (voted through Houston Community Newspapers as Best Community Theatre of 2010) presents David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow with Joey Millilo directing. The show will be performed on the Cerwinske Stage November 4 to 19, 2011.
Revived on Broadway in 2008, the original production starred Joe Mantegna, Ron Silver and Madonna in a satirical dissection of the American movie business, a culture as corrupt as the society it claims to reflect.

Charlie Fox has a terrific vehicle for a currently hot client. Bringing the script to his friend Bobby Gould, the newly appointed Head of Production at a major studio, both see the work as their ticket to the Big Time. The star wants to do it; as they prepare their pitch to the studio boss, Bobby wagers Charlie that he can seduce the temp/secretary, Karen. As a ruse, he gives her a novel by "some Eastern sissy" writer that needs a courtesy read before being dismissed out of hand. Karen slyly determines the novel, not the movie-star script, should be the company's next film. She sleeps with Bobby who is so smitten with Karen and her ideals that he pleads with Charlie to drop the star project and pitch the "Eastern sissy" writer's book.

In an interview in The Chicago Tribune, Mamet explained the title as follows:
I remembered the saying that you see on a lot of old plates and mugs: 'Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow.' This, I knew, was a play about work and about the end of the world, so 'Speed-the-Plow' was perfect because not only did it mean work, it meant having to plow under and start over again.

"Hilarious and chilling."- The New York Times

"Mamet's clearest, wittiest play." - The New York Daily News

"I laughed and laughed. The play is crammed with wonderful, dazzling, brilliant lines." - The New York Post