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.The second of these three plays, Goldberg Street, is only a fewpages long and nearly cryptic, and because it is utterly aporetic (what are theytalking about?), it is, finally, heartbreakingly moving.It begins with ameditation on antisemitism and its disenfranchising, alienating effects:Man: Goldberg Street.Because they didn t have it.Theyhad Smith Street they had Rybka Street.There was no Goldberg Street.You can keep your distance and it s fine.If a man is secluded then he feels superior.Or rage.But where s the good in that?Daughter: There is no good in it.Man: I m not sure.19In a recent newspaper interview, Mamet talked about his newest film,Homicide which is about a New York detective who is a Jew: I mean, Homicide is one of the first movies in which you hear the word Jew ratherthan Jewish..And as a Jew it kind of burns me that the only way that theJewish experience is ever treated in American films is through the Nazimurder of European Jews. Echoing his own play, Mamet told theinterviewer, Have you ever noticed that in spite of the fact that there wereauthentic Jewish heroes during World War II, there are no streets namedGoldberg Street in America? The very idea sounds funny to our ears. 20 And 65The Rhythm of Talking in MametJoe Mantegna (who plays the detective) added, It s like the obscenity inDavid s plays, which has always been controversial.David doesn t dabble inanything.If he s going to lay something on you, well, here s 10 tons of it.He shandling the Jewish aspect of this script in the same way. 21Even when his characters are not Jewish, even when they seem to begoyishe hoodlums (like Teach in American Buffalo), they sound Jewish.Forinstance, in Squirrels, the Cleaning Lady is working on a cowboy script aboutThe Kid and Black Bart. So the Kid says, Slap leather, Bart and Bart says, Kid the man can beat me to the draw ain t been born yet, and the man don tlive who ain t been born yet. Kid says, Enough fucking rhetoric, huh, go foryour gun you re getting old. Bart says, Who isn t? (15).It is telling that of all Mamet s characters, the most conspicuously notJewish character is John Williamson.The office manager in Glengarry GlenRoss is distinguished from the rest of the men in that office (both the Jews andthe Italians) by the rhythms of his speech.And, as in American Buffalo, thoserhythms speak the meaning of the play.Consider this vivid, decisiveexchange as the plot s crisis approaches, an exchange about ways and kinds oftalking:Roma: You want to learn the first rule you d know if you everspent a day in your life.you never open your mouth tillyou know what the shot is.(Pause.) You fucking child.Levene: You are a shithead, Williamson.Williamson: Mmm.Levene: You can t think on your feet you should keep your mouthclosed.(Pause.) You hear me? I m talking to you.Do youhear me.?Williamson: Yes.(Pause.) I hear you.Levene: You can t learn that in an office.Eh? He s right.You haveto learn it on the streets.You can t buy that.You have tolive it.Williamson: Mmm.Levene: Yes.Mmm.Yes.Precisely.Precisely. Cause your partnerdepends on it.(Pause.) I m talking to you, I m trying to tellyou something.Williamson: You are?Levene: Yes, I am.Williamson: What are you trying to tell me?Levene: What Roma s trying to tell you.What I told youyesterday.Why you don t belong in this business. 66Toby Silverman ZinmanWilliamson: Why I don t.Levene: You listen to me, someday you might say, Hey. No,fuck that, you just listen what I m going to say: yourpartner depends on you.Your partner.a man who s your partner depends on you.you have to go with him andfor him.or you re shit, you re shit, you can t exist alone.Williamson: (Brushing past him.) Excuse me.Levene:.excuse you, nothing, you be as cold as you want, butyou just fucked a good man out of six thousand dollars,and his goddamn bonus cause you didn t know theshot.you re scum, you re fucking white bread
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