David Mamet And Male Friendship

Throughout most of history, deep male bonds anchored a man's life. Why, then, are male friendships so impoverished in America today? Mamet's plays and films dramatize the conflicts, contradictions, and covert affection between men. No other American playwright has explored the war zone we call male friendship with as sharp a scalpel as Mamet's.

His work shows both the necessity of and the difficulty in male friendships. Using insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the history of sexuality, Holmberg explores the ambiguity that drives male bonding. Personal interviews with Mamet and with the actors who have interpreted his major roles shed new light on how and why men bond with each other and complement - in an unexpected and unique way - Holmberg's close analysis of Mamet's texts.

Review: In this study of male relationships in David Mamet's plays by our leading Mamet scholar, Arthur Holmberg has found a fascinating new entrance into the multi-levelled mind of a master dramatist. Some may reject Holmberg's controversial thesis; others will embrace it. Few will be able to ignore it. - Robert Brustein, author of The Tainted Muse and a trilogy of plays about Shakespeare (The English Channel, Mortal Terror, and The Last Will), and founder of the American Repertory and Yale Repertory Theatres