The Old Neighborhood
DAVID MAMET’
s
THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
“Devastating … often hilarious … the three short plays … generate a unique synergism.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“The image of ‘The Old Neighborhood’ is a metaphor for a past that seems to be the repository of dreams. But Mamet is too shrewd an observer and too suspicious of sentiment to suggest any comfort waits back home.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“Funny, moving … thoughtful, provocative.… [Mamet] has found his unique voice.”
—
New York Post
“Vintage Mamet.”
—
Village Voice
“Excellent … strikingly nuanced.… The play ends on a dreamlike note as creepy as anything in the playwright’s larger works.… Mamet speaks volumes.”
—
Boston Globe
THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
David Mamet was born in Chicago in 1947. He studied at Goddard College in Vermont and at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York. He has taught at Goddard College, the Yale School of Drama, and New York University, and lectures at the Atlantic Theater Company, of which he is a founding member. He is the author of the acclaimed plays
The Cryptogram, Oleanna, Speed-the-Plow, Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo
, and
Sexual Perversity in Chicago
. He has also written screenplays for such films as
Homicide, House of Games
, and the Oscar-nominated
The Verdict
. His plays have won the Pulitzer Prize and the Obie Award.
ALSO BY DAVID MAMET
PLAYS
The Cryptogram
Oleanna
Speed-the-Plow
Bobby Gould in Hell
The Woods
The Shawl
and
Prairie du Chien
Reunion
and
Dark Pony
and
The Sanctity of Marriage
The Poet and the Rent
Lakeboat
Goldberg Street
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Frog Prince
The Water Engine
and
Mr. Happiness
Edmond
American Buffalo
A Life in the Theatre
Sexual Perversity in Chicago
and
The Duck Variations
FICTION
The Village
The Old Religion
NONFICTION
True and False
The Cabin
On Directing Film
Some Freaks
Make Believe Town
Writing in Restaurants
Three Uses of the Knife
SCREENPLAYS
Oleanna
Glengarry Glen Ross
We’re No Angels
Things Change
(with Shel Silverstein)
Hoffa
The Untouchables
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Verdict
House of Games
Homicide
Wag the Dog
The Edge
The Spanish Prisoner
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
Deeny Copyright © 1998 by David Mamet
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States in paperback by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Two of the plays in this collection were previously published:
The Disappearance of the Jews
was first published by Samuel
French, Inc. Copyright © 1982, 1987 by David Mamet
Jolly
was first published by Applause Theatre Books in
Best Short Plays
. Copyright © 1989 by David Mamet
CAUTION: These plays are protected in whole, in part, or in any form, under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, and are subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, radio, television, and public reading, are strictly reserved. All inquiries concerning performance rights should be addressed to the author’s agent: Howard Rosenstone, 3 East 48 Street, New York, NY 10017.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mamet, David.
The old neighborhood : three plays / by David Mamet.
p. cm.
“A Vintage original”—T.p. verso.
Contents: The disappearance of the Jews—Jolly—Deeny.
eISBN: 978-0-307-81762-4
I. Title.
PS3563.A4345037 1998
812’.54—dc21 97-32224
v3.1
The Old Neighborhood
was first produced on April 11, 1997, at the Hasty Pudding Theatre, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the American Repertory Theatre, as part of their New Stages Series, with the following cast:
| | | |
| Bobby: | | Tony Shalhoub |
| Jolly: | | Brooke Adams |
| Joey: | | Vincent Guastaferro |
| Deeny: | | Rebecca Pidgeon |
| Carl: | | Jack Willis |
Directed by Scott Zigler; sets by Kevin Rigdon; costumes by Harriet Voyt; lighting by John Ambrosone
The Old Neighborhood
was produced on November 19, 1997, at the Booth Theatre, in New York, by Carole Shorenstein Hays and Stuart Thompson, with the following cast:
| | | |
| Bobby: | | Peter Riegert |
| Jolly: | | Patti LuPone |
| Joey: | | Vincent Guastaferro |
| Deeny: | | Rebecca Pidgeon |
| Carl: | | Jack Willis |
Directed by Scott Zigler; sets by Kevin Rigdon; costumes by Harriet Voyt; lighting by John Ambrosone
HE
D
ISAPPEARANCE OF THE
J
EWS
CHARACTERS
| | | | |
| | BOBBY | | a man in his thirties or forties |
| | JOEY | | his friend |
SCENE
A hotel room
JOEY
: What I remember … what I remember was that time we were at Ka-Ga-Wak we took Howie Greenberg outside.
BOBBY
: Was that Howie Greenberg?
JOEY
: Yeah …
BOBBY
: No …
JOEY
: No? Who was it, then?
BOBBY
: It …
JOEY
: It was Howie Greenberg.
BOBBY
: Red hair …
JOEY
: Yeah. Red hair. Braces.
BOBBY
: That was Howie Greenberg?
JOEY
: Yeah.
BOBBY
: From Temple Zion?
JOEY
: No. He never went to Zion?
BOBBY
: No?
JOEY
: No. Hey, Bob, no, you never went to Zion.
BOBBY
: What’s that mean, I don’t know who went there …?
JOEY
: No. It doesn’t mean that. But you know the time I’m talking of?
BOBBY
: We tied him to the bed. We put him in the snow.
JOEY
: Yeah.
BOBBY
: I got to tell you something, Joey, it was not Howie Greenberg. Howie never went to Winter Camp.
(Pause)
Am I right?
(Pause)
Am I right? Jeff went to Winter Camp. Tell me I’m wrong.
(Pause)
You fuckin’ asshole …
JOEY
: You, you, what the fuck would you know, never even get a Christmas card from you: “What happened to who.” It was Jeff …?
BOBBY
: Yeah.
(Pause)
JOEY
: Isn’t that funny … I’m not sure you’re right …
(Pause)
Huh …
BOBBY
: Whatever happened to Howie?
JOEY
: Howie.
BOBBY
: Yeah.
JOEY
: Are you ready for this …? Howie turned out to be a fag.
BOBBY
: You’re kidding.
JOEY
: No.
BOBBY
: You’re kidding.
JOEY
: No.
BOBBY
: He’s a fag.
JOEY
: That he is.
BOBBY
: How about that.
JOEY
: Isn’t that something.
BOBBY
: Yeah.
(Pause)
His parents?
JOEY
: Moved to Florida.
(Pause)
BOBBY
: I always liked him.
JOEY
: I did, too.
(Pause)
BOBBY
: Huh.
(Pause)
JOEY
: Yeah.
(Pause)
BOBBY
: What ever happened to Jeff?
JOEY
: He’s still here …