Glengarry in Ross??

Producing David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is a big change for the always-civil Ross Valley Players. This script, says Director James Dunn, is “edgier than most,” and the theatre cautions audiences at the outset that “adult language” is used in the play. In fact, adult language (depending of what adults you hang out with) plays a major role, as the characters spray each other, their clients, their business, with undiluted venom.

But that’s only one part of Mamet’s hard, often comic style. Here’s a sample from the first scene, in which agent Shelly Levene confers with his boss at their usual Chinese restaurant: “. . . You . . . Moss . . . Roma . . . look at the sheets . . . look at the sheets. Nineteen eighty, eighty-one . . . eighty-two . . . six months of eighty-two . . . who’s there? Who’s up there?” Levene’s staccato is as revealing as a facial tic. He is desperate, and we are all eavesdropping. The language might even be lifted from the playwright’s own experience in a similar Chicago office. Mamet’s vision of sales pressure in real estate won Glengarry Glen Ross a Pulitzer in 1984.

And it has juicy parts for actors. (There are no women in the script.) RVP’s Bob Wilson says that more than seventy actors turned out for the auditions, and seven were selected. With skill and purpose, James Dunn keeps each character authentic and separate.

Shelly Levene (Norman Hall) is frenzied for his office’s good leads, which he’s sure are being withheld. He’ll work a deal – any deal – to get back in the game, and he uses every technique he knows to get what he wants.

But Williamson, the boss, (H.D. Southerland) is a cooled-down policy man; he’s “not permitted to give premium leads to low achievers,” he says, not even when they pay for them. Levene must be content with leads from the B list.

A fast-paced complaint duet between two other agents, Moss (Richard Conti) and Aaronow (Tim Earls) generate a plot for their own benefit; steal the good leads, and sell them to a competing agency. Seriously? Could it work? “Are we talking, or are we speaking?”

But now we see the No. 1 seller at work. Richard Roma (Eric Burke) shows his style with a fellow single diner at the same restaurant. In smoothly crafted conversation, Roma purrs, “What’s special? What draws us?” and begins to reveal his pitch. James Lingk (Stephen Dietz) is the target; there’s no way he’ll get away without signing a contract.

The second act set (wonderful work by Bruce Lackovic) shows the office’s gritty interior with the El train making occasional passes overhead, trash cans stacked outside and “Caution” tape over the broken window. A no-nonsense policeman (Jason Souza) is taking names and asking questions. The filing cabinet has been rifled, and the leads are missing. Who did it?

This is not the best time for one of the agents to enter and crow about the big sale he just made, but it’s an excellent time for James Lingk to show up. Disorder’s in control. “What do we have to do to make it right?”

David Mamet’s play offers no easy answers. The last line says it all.

Glengarry Glen Ross will play at the Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center through Feb. 22. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Ticket prices range from $15 to $25. For reservations or more information, see the website, www.rossvalleyplayers.com or call the box office, 456-9555.