THE WOODS ****

By David Mamet

David Mamet is a writer whose work we haven’t seen for quite aorder to have their sexual weekend.

What is most interesting about Mamet it is with the ease he uses colloquial language, making his characters utterly believable

Unfortunately this play was written on 1970s so the actual dialogue marks it as an old fashioned attitude to sex, marriage and the behaviour orf men and women when in the throes of a passionate relationship. There is no doubt about the passion, they cannot stop put their handprints all over each other.

However she is woman, he is man and that is the problem.

What is so interesting is that Mamet can invent two utterly irritating people and yet you can become embroiled in their story and happily watch to the end. It’s a kind of magic, He makes sure that everything they say to each other seems absolutely real. And it is irritating to somebody who lived in the seventies because that is exactly how it was.

Ruth is a girl who loves the country life, the rain, the birds, the trees, the weather, the water and talks far too much.

Nick is a man who hates the country, life, hates the rain, the birds, the weather,  the water and doesn’t talk enough. 

This is a war of the sexes and follows these two people through their explicitly sexy life at the beginning and carries on through the insults, the hatred, that physical fighting, the fist fighting and the beating of each other with an oar.

But things have changed so much since the seventies. He does finally say he loves her, only when he has been beaten into the ground and forced to admit his feelings. She has already been through the humiliation of speaking her love  for him while he denies his affection for her and is purposefully hurting her. She grows to hate him and starts to leavee, but he prevents her. 

There is so much truth here about a toxic relationship, there was no way they could possibly begin to understand each other.

This was written in the nineteen seventies when as they say men were men and women were women – just when things were beginning to change.The woman wanted to be loved but also needed to be respected. The man thinks he has to be in charge of her, himself and the world. It wasn’t until he broke down and confessed his need. That there may be some hope for them. The play finishes wondering what will happen tomorrow. 

Despite the irritating characters, the acting, direction and writing are all so good that one is completely held by the story and even empathises with them. Mamet has magic..

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