The Anarchist

David Mamet

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781559364126
• eBook ISBN: 9781559364287
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

Anarchist [an/er-kist] n.
1. A person who opposes the authority of the state.
2. A person who causes disorder or upheaval.
3. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet’s new play about one woman who is put away for life, and another who is committed to her rehabilitation.

“Students of Mamet won’t want to miss it; I was engaged and compelled throughout. Indeed, The Anarchist is a counterweight to the conventional dramatic tropes of family, love and death.” –Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

“The Anarchist leaves no shortage of material for after-theater debate.” –Elysa Gardner, USA Today

“Being challenged to rethink your own perceptions and prejudices is a refreshing thrill of the sort that has otherwise been in short supply so far this season…it makes The Anarchist one of Mamet’s most trenchant and timely offerings ever.” –Matthew Murray, Talkin’ Broadway

“The viewer experiences Mamet’s signature rhythmic language. In what is like a ping-pong game, this battle of two women over freedom, power, money, religion—and the lack thereof, remains compelling during the eighty-five minutes it runs…Powerful, thought-provoking, and current.” –LA Splash Magazine

David Mamet is a playwright, essayist and screenwriter who directs for both the stage and film. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Glengarry Glen Ross. His plays include China Doll, Race, The Anarchist, American Buffalo, Speed-the-Plow, November, The Cryptogram, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Duck Variations, Reunion, The Blue Hour, The Shawl, Bobby gould in Hell, Edmond, Romance, The Old Neighborhood and his adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance.

Ann, seated at a desk. A telephone is on the desk. An intercom sits on a conference table. Also on the desk are several files, a loosely bound manuscript and several books. A briefcase sits on the floor. Cathy is standing.

ANN: Will you sit down? How are you?

CATHY: No, I think I’m well. Thank you for asking.

ANN: What have you been doing?

CATHY: I’ve been studying. As usual.

ANN: And what have you learned?

CATHY: In the larger sense . . .

ANN: . . . all right.

CATHY: I hope that I’ve learned to be reasonable. At least I have studied it. Most importantly.

ANN: Most importantly.

CATHY: Yes.

ANN: Reason more than patience?

CATHY: One might think the pressing study would be patience. But patience, of course, implies an end.

ANN: “Patience implies an end.”

CATHY: Well, yes.

ANN: As?

CATHY: One may be patient only for something.

ANN: Such as?

CATHY: A deferred desire, or the cessation of discomfort . . .

ANN: Revenge?

CATHY: Well, that would fall within the rubric of desire deferred.

ANN: And Reason teaches?

CATHY: Reason would teach the abandonment of the unfulfillable wish; and, so, of the need for patience. It therefore may be said to be the higher study.

(Cathy gestures back, toward upstage. Pause.)

Lovely girl.

ANN: Yes?

CATHY: In the anteroom. (Pause) I find when conversation stalls it never indicates a want of subject—one may always talk about the weather—but rather some subject’s repression. What is it?

ANN: I’m leaving.

CATHY: Yes, we were expecting that announcement quite some time. Well. (Pause) Everything ends. That is neither a new nor a monumental understanding. But it’s true.

ANN (Points to the large manuscript on her desk): I’ve been reading your book.

CATHY: Is it a book?

ANN: Isn’t it?

CATHY: Well. You are the first to read it.

ANN: I’m honored.

CATHY: And, you know, I’ve been thinking of it, so long, as a . . .

ANN: . . . “A” . . .?

CATHY: A manuscript, a “work-in-progress” . . . A “collection of . . .”

ANN: Why would that not be a book?

CATHY: No, I’ll take your comment as an endorsement. Thank you.

ANN: You’re welcome, Cathy.

CATHY: If it is a book, it remains only to see what a publisher . . . And what the Public, but, of course, I am ahead of myself.

ANN: No, of course it’s a book . . . (Picks up the manuscript and reads) “When he came. The first time. He questioned me.”

CATHY: . . . oh, yes . . .

ANN (Reading): “And I said, in answer to him, ‘I revere Jesus, though I do not worship him. But I have the utmost respect, and I might say “love,” for those who do.’” It’s quite beautiful.

CATHY: You chose that phrase purposefully.

ANN: In order to?

CATHY: To compliment me.

ANN: No. But I would have. As with much of the book.

CATHY: Thank you.

ANN: And that was the first meeting.

CATHY: What was the first meeting?

ANN: You describe here . . .

CATHY: With?

ANN: The priest.

CATHY: The meeting with the priest?

ANN: Yes?

CATHY: The first time? I don’t know if that was it. But some time. During that first year.

ANN: In ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• The Anarchist
• About the author