You think your job sucks...

Bethesda Roundhouse Theater this month mounts a version of David Mamet's Pulizer Prize winning Glengary Glenn Ross. Pretty tough stuff for our little community theater, and they've pulled it off really well. Of course this is the quintessential Mamet talk-a-thon, and it lives or dies by the ability of the cast to spew non-stop, rapid-fire, obscenity-laced vitriol at one another while somehow eliciting sympathy from an audience made up largely of elderly Bethesdans. No small task, I assure you. But this group pulls it off really well. The language is gritty and grungey frankly a bit over the top in terms of NSFW vocabulary and the staccato smart-guy lecturing. But these actors manage to deliver Mamet's overwrought dialog credibly, intelligibly and with just the right amount of nuance - it's not as easy to shout 'cunt' at someone while retaining sympathy for the shouter as you might think.

This is one of those text heavy plays that could just as effectively be presented in workshop fashion with just a few chairs and tables as props. But the sets in the Roundhouse production are meticulously assembled, making outstanding, subtle use of the rotating stage which in this instance seems almost to have been more of a liability than an advantage. But the two sets, a Chinese restaurant and the disheveled sales office play beautifully against each other, juxtaposing the silky chintz of Asian eatery decor with the gritty, rough shod boiler room in which these poor working schmucks are consigned to spend their working lives. This one is worth seeing if only to watch a group of veteran actors chew up Mamet's verbiage.

Runs through March 3.