Character by Association #4: getting the playwright off my back

This is what I hate. A playwright who tries to completely control the meaning of his play. Here’s what Mamet did. After having the play produced a number of times, AND PUBLISHED, — and then produced some more — he inserted a half page of lines between Roma and Williamson, the office clerk. In this bit Roma tells Williamson that he’s going to be taking half of another salesman’s profits (Levene’s). The point is to show, unequivocally, that Roma is a nasty fucker. Mamet’s worry, apparently, is that sentimentality might creep into the performance. The lines are fine, the interpretation is valid. But so are other interpretations. I find all of the characters in Glengarry complex. Why oversimplify them. Soon Mamet will be dead. But I imagine he’ll be trying to exert control over his scripts from beyond the grave.
 
Another American playwright, Charles Mee, pointedly refuses to impose his view of the play on a given production. The reason? He noticed it’s the dead playwrights that get the best productions.