SOURCE: Weber, Myles. “David Mamet in Theory and Practice.” New England Review 21, no. 2 (spring 2000): 136-41.

In the following essay, Weber discusses Mamet's ideas about the role of theater in contemporary society, focusing on writings in which Mamet addresses the structure of tragedies versus melodramas.

David Mamet's publication record challenges the widely accepted falsehood that the value of a playwright's professional stock plummets if he is perceived as prolific. Over the past three decades, Mamet has written more than twenty original full-length plays. In addition, he has published numerous adaptations, two volumes of prose fiction, two poetry collections, several children's books, eight volumes of nonfiction, and fourteen screenplays. In 1999 alone, he premiered a new play and published a collection of poetry, two screenplays, and his fifth collection of short essays, Jafsie and John Henry.¹ He also directs feature films.

Mamet's short essays focus on a fixed constellation of topics...