ESSAY DAVID MAMET

Drama is about circumstances and how they affect behavior. In the drama the individual is forced to make a moral choice. This choice is never between good and evil (it would be clearly immoral to reject the good) but between two evils.
As such, drama, and particularly occupational drama, is a perfect reiteration of the American Dilemma. Democracy, we are told, is the worst system, aside from all the other systems; and free enterprise is criminal exploitation of the needy - except when it supplies our cars, homes, wages and food.
Our American Drama is the drama of the workplace. It is there that we live our lives, and make our closest friends. We are a nation of workers. But, aha, what is the difference between Work and Art, and how is one to draw the line- This is the essential question of my play “Speed-the-Plow.”
Here we find the newly appointed head of production of a major studio, Bobby Gould. And, just as he comes to prominence, here we find the temporary assistant, full of high-flown notions about the capacity of the movies to make life better. Bobby’s sidekick, meanwhile, pleads for Reason (commerce) and against Art (love).
Oh, my golly, who is right?
Well. They both are. I wrote the play some 20 years ago, when I knew little of Hollywood. I lived in the East and would go out three times a year , and sit in Hollywood with some director or producer or studio head, and talk about some project we would make or not make, and the thing was pretty clear: the movies were an industry, staffed by craven business types interested only in making money.
So I went home, back East, and wrote my play. Six years ago I moved to Hollywood. And I found that the movies (and television) are an industry, staffed by craven business types interested only in making money.
And I found further a) that I am one of them; and b) that it’s a grand idea that the industry is such.
If I want to write a play or a book, I, as an American, am free to do so, and I’ll do so, and I do not need anyone’s support to do so. If, however, I want to have access to an industry capable of both producing and (theoretically) distributing my work to a worldwide market, I’m going to have to go into the world of those who (by whatever means) have got the corner office and convince them why it is a good idea .
The alternative is public financing, and I swear to you I’d rather deal with Commerce (Tool of Greed) than with Public Benevolence (Tool of the State).
Here’s why: There is a limit on greed - the marketplace. There is no limit on the hunger for power.
But what about High Art- I, personally, don’t think it is the concern of drama. I believe that the business of America is business, and the aim of drama is to put people in the seats; and that the best way to do that is to write a gripping story, with a bunch of sex, some nifty plot twists and a lot of snappy dialogue.
If you are looking for such, I suggest “Speed-the-Plow.”