Glengarry Glen Ross (9-78)

This play is interesting, it kind of reminds me of the type of movie Tarantino would direct: a lot of dialogue and back and forth banter. Some of it is kind of hard to understand because they interrupt each other so much, its hard to get the gist of what they are saying. I also feel like there isn't much to talk about because nothing really happens in the scenes. They just sit around and talk for a while about the same thing.

In Act one, scene one Williamson and Levene are having a heated discussion over dinner. Levene is begging Williamson to give him a shot at some leads, because Levene isn't selling much right now and is in danger of losing his job. At first I thought Williamson was just being a jerk and flaunting the fact that he is doing well and Levene isn't. But as the scene goes on, I started to think maybe Levene is a smooth talking swindler and a freeloader. Because he starts saying he'll give him the money later, when I get the feeling Williamson knew he didn't have it all along. He may have just told him he'd give him the leads for a steep price to get Levene off his back about it. Levene also went to dinner with Williamson after conveniently leaving his wallet back at the hotel. Thats a little underhanded and sneaky as well. I don't trust Levene, he seems a little desperate to me.

In act one, scene two Moss and Aaronow are eating in a restaurant and trash talking the people that I suppose are their bosses. They are talking about similar things as the two gentleman in scene one. I guess the whole awards incentive thing at their workplace has gotten everyone in an uproar. Then Moss starts trying to convince Aaronow to break into the office and steal the leads that night. He says he has found a buyer for the leads and plans to make some money off of them and then go work with that guy. He promises Aaronow the same cut, but then tells him he has to do the dirty work. Then he lets it slip that he is actually going to be making a bigger cut without much of the risk. I don't trust this Moss character either. He seems like he would do anything to get his piece of the pie. And Aaronow better be careful or Moss is going to throw him under the bus and take all the reward for himself. As a side note, when Moss starts talking about indians on page 29 and he says they've got a grapevine, it reminds me of where I live here in Clemson. Every year without fail a ton of indians live in my apartment complex. A bunch move out and then a bunch more move in. They definitely have a network or something because I feel like most of the indian population in Clemson leaves in my apartment complex. I just thought that was funny.

Scene three is really short and it is basically Roma's outlook on life rolled up into a couple of pages. I thought it was interesting how each scene in Act one has two people in it, and it was always the same: one is an aggressor and the other is reluctantly submissive. So far the only aggressor i haven't completely disliked is Roma, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Act two is back at the real estate office after it has been robbed by Aaronow, although it does not specifically say that Aaronow did it. A detective named Baylen is snooping around looking for clues and interviews. This part is weird because I'm not entirely sure of what is going on. Aaronow is acting oddly because he seems to only be worried about whether the leads were insured. If he stole them I'm not really sure why he would care so much, maybe he feels bad for the people he has screwed over if he stole the leads. Roma is freaking out about his contracts being stolen because he thinks he is supposed to win the Cadillac after his last sell. And the whole while Baylen is snooping around. Then Levene comes in and starts telling them he sold 8 units with the lead Williamson gave him and made a ton of money off of it. Moss is there too, but I don't really know what he is talking about, but he does start telling everyone off and says he is leaving for Wisconsin. Then Williamson, Levene and Roma start talking back and forth for a while, and our reading ended in the middle of the Act. I don't care much for the fact that there aren't any stopping points in act two. And I don't understand how they could make a full length movie out of this play, because I feel like it would take no time at all to play through all this dialogue.