Ordinarily, an Afternoon Play (Radio 4) with the title Keep Your Pantheon, or On The Whole I'd Rather Be in Mesopotamia would have me running for the hills. Most Afternoon Plays, even with plainer titles, have that effect. But this sounded like a bad Carry On tribute, with those echoes of "keep your pants on" in Keep Your Pantheon, or at the very least a writer who just can't believe how funny and clever and way beyond editing their words are. What kept me from the hills, though, were four words: "world premiere" and "David Mamet". I'm sufficiently sweet on radio that it still gives me a thrill when the wireless does anything first, even if it's the career of Jeremy Kyle.
Having just listened to Mamet's new play - a comedy of manners, set in ancient Rome, following the fortunes of a failing acting troupe - I'm left with mixed feelings. The good news, first. This was a zillion miles better than 99% of Afternoon Plays on Radio 4. It made me smile a few times, and I liked the way Mamet played with slapstick and farce in a restrained, muted way that didn't feel too tricksy. The play continued Mamet's explorations of power, masculinity and language, so I could feel brainy ticking them off the Mamet checklist as I tuned in. It also had lots of fun sending up the massive self-regard of actors, a reliably entertaining theme from Shakespeare to Extras and beyond.
But, and it's a big but, I wonder if I was the only person left wanting more? Wondering if this was the same playwright who had rooted me to my seat, and left me in no doubt that something of massive cultural significance was going on when I saw Glengarry Glen Ross and Oleanna in their first London productions? Keep Your Pantheon was fun and engaging, and you were swept into its antique world smoothly and swiftly, but it didn't have the distinctive vigour and bite I was hoping for. In the past, Mamet has made me angry, and Mamet has made my head hurt with the ferocity of his writing. This world premiere, by contrast, left me feeling less dazed and rather more bemused.
Keep Your Pantheon was a zillion miles better than 99% of Afternoon Plays on Radio 4, but where was the vigour and bite?
