‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ portrays intense business world

Company Carolina’s new show “Glengarry Glen Ross” is about doing whatever it takes to get to the top in the cutthroat world of business.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, written by David Mamet, concerns the real estate business, morals and the American Dream.

The play opens tonight at the Historic Playmakers Theater and runs through Sunday.

One of the central characters, Richard Roma, is a fearsome businessman with slicked-back hair and a black suit, often seen smoking a cigarette with his feet up on his desk while explaining everything everyone else has done wrong.

Instead of shouting, he speaks in a dangerously low, ominous voice before losing his composure.

Daniel Doyle, a sophomore dramatic art major, portrays Roma, the employee at the real estate company with the most sales who runs the office as if he were the boss.

“(I’m) constantly trying to screw everyone to get my own gain,” Doyle said about his character.

Mark Taylor, a sophomore philosophy and dramatic art major and the play’s student director, said it’s a very influential piece that premiered in the early 1980s and was unlike anything else in American theater at the time.

“David Mamet has influenced far too many people in American theatre right now,” Taylor said.

Doyle said people should see the show because it’s unlike any other piece of theater.

“Mamet hates acting and thinks directing is stupid, so it’s supposed to just be people standing on stage giving lines back and forth,” Doyle said.

Taylor said this mocking nature is supposed to make the show a comedy.

“If it’s not done well then you don’t realize that it’s a comedy, and even if you’re not chuckling at every line it’s still a comedy,” he said.

Taylor said the performers are another aspect that make this show stand out.

“It’s something most of these actors have never done before,” he said. “They aren’t playing lovers or brothers or sisters. It’s about people who are quite close to strangers with each other.”

The cast is supposed to be all male, but Taylor decided to make the character John Williamson into Joanne Williamson, who is portrayed by Leila Kaji.

“My favorite part is getting to be in a show that’s supposed to be all male,” Kaji said.

Kaji, a sophomore dramatic art and linguistics major, said her character is the boss but is looked down upon in the office.

“It’s fast. It’s funny. It’s only an hour of your time,” Taylor said.

“It’s the best way to spend your hour between 7 and 8 on a Saturday night, which you weren’t going to do anything with anyway.”

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.