It might seem odd that the year Mamet declared that he was "no longer a brain-dead liberal" (in a belligerent op-ed with that phrase in the title) was the same year he decided what America really needed was a farce about a dim-witted President who's basically a caricature of George W. Bush and who loves to threaten everyone with being sent to Guantanamo-style military prisons. It's also a little ironic that the main difference between President Smith and the public image of GWB as a lost doofus is that Smith is also fantastically corrupt and will turn on a dime from mouthing respect for American traditions to denouncing them out of pettiness, since when you put all those things together you basically get our current chief executive, of whom Mamet is now a huge fan. But it all makes sense if you read past the title of that op-ed to see that he thinks what makes liberal bleeding hearts so "brain-dead" is a delusion that people are good, whereas an enlightened real man knows they are all terrible.

Everyone in November is terrible, in different and not very interesting ways; but Smith definitely seems to be closer to the author's heart because he's at least a little more creatively and unapologetically so, and all of the moments in the play that are actually funny (which, for me, happened about two or three times) come from seeing him be the only person who's really trying. The idea that he doesn't just misunderstand the silly tradition of pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey, but turns his misunderstanding into a scheme to extort a fortune from the turkey industry by threatening to pardon all the turkeys in America, is a pretty good joke. However, the fact that Mamet sets up that joke by saying Smith got the idea from the outrageous pardon record of Bill Clinton, even though Clinton was far outdone in that department by Reagan and Nixon, is very typical of the rest of the play in that it basically assumes the audience listens to a lot of right-wing talk radio and accepts that view of the world as common sense. From that point of view, Mamet might think he's being gallant in making Smith's lesbian speechwriter a basically sympathetic character in the sense that she's only trying to pursue her own self-interest and wouldn't try to destroy Thanksgiving if Smith weren't forcing her to (a subplot that makes absolutely no sense by the end of the play; Mamet seems to just forget at some point that Smith's original reasons for doing this no longer apply), but she's still a Limbaugh-style caricature in that she admits to being an America-hating radical at heart, while also writing her anti-patriarchal rhetoric in such a by-the-numbers way that she clearly doesn't give a crap about those principles either, and also since she's a woman she'll do anything to get a child. When it comes to the crazed Native American politician who's out for Smith's blood, we don't even get as much nuance as that—he's just a cliché-spouting cartoon, which is supposed to be funny all by itself because it's so politically incorrect. Being Mamet, there are some nice turns of phrase now and then but it's still painful, embarrassing stuff.

Possibly the worst role is the one person who isn't stupid, the President's right-hand man Brown, whose only reason for existing is to mildly say cynical but sensible things that Smith will ignore. I can't imagine a director or actor enjoying trying to make something out of this, but apparently people are still doing it, and I've even heard people say it's timely now—as if a stupid and venal President was something that took any imagination to depict in 2008 (I've also recently heard things like "wow, it even has a subplot about 'bird flu' from China", which I guess means that people have really short memories, since avian flu scares have been in the news many times since 1997). The main thing it accomplished for me was retroactively making Oleanna seem better. ( )

I picked this one up at the library, opened it right there at stayed at the library reading, unable to put it down. This is my first Mamet play, and in spite of the crazy-satirical premise, I still expected it to be essentially dark, but it's really not. One can call it depressing only for the way it so accurately portrays modern American politics, but it's hysterically funny and, in the end, not at all unkind. I know that this is the play that caused Mamet to write his famous "Why I am no longer a brain dead liberal" column and come out as a newly-minted conservative (although the provocative title was not of his choosing). However, this story truly has no political slant, except for being most decidedly non-PC. I recommend it to anyone even marginally interested in politics- just be aware it does use some fairly colorful language (though in a realistic rather than gratuitous way). ( )

Plot summary of play from back cover:

It's November in a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. Amidst the biggest fight of his political career, the President has to find time to pardon a couple of turkeys — saving them from the slaughter before Thanksgiving — and this simple PR event inspires Smith to risk it all in attempt to win back public support.

I had such high hopes for this play given that the author won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross, among other very notable mentions regarding his works.

As a political satire, it has some merit, albeit somewhat fleeting in nature. Hopefully, it presents better as a performance because reading it was quite a distracting experience. The majority of the play appears to require the actors to talk over one another, making for disjointed dialogue in script form. It may appeal to anyone looking for comic relief during the 'silly season' of the final days in a presidential election campaign where the president is trailing - quite drastically in the polls - and is still expect to engage in the rather superfluous acts of elected office, like grant a pardon to a turkey in preparation for the national holiday.

November received its world premiere on January 17, 2008 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York. One can only imagine what must have been going through Mamet's mind at the time he wrote this one. ( )

After having met David Mamet last year and also reading all about his new play that was opening on Broadway at the time, I finally got around to reading it. I have to say it was incredibly entertaining, but not my favorite play ever.

I'm sure in performance with Nathan Lane, however, that it just might be my favorite play ever.

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