SOURCE: Merlin, Bella. “Mamet's Heresy and Common Sense: What's True and False in True and False.” New Theater Quarterly 14, no. 3 (August 2000): 249-54.

In the following essay, Merlin dissects Mamet's advice to actors in True and False, contending that Mamet misunderstands or misinterprets the Stanislavsky Method of Physical Actions.

Although it's over two years now since the appearance of David Mamet's book, True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor, recent experience spurs me to offer a riposte to the provocative way in which Mamet assaults contemporary acting practice, taking a few hefty swipes at Stanislavsky as he does so. The impetus behind this riposte arises from an ongoing negotiation with professional actors and acting students, whose conversion to the Mamet gospel is a little unsettling—partly because the basis from which he criticizes Stanislavsky's system is often inaccurate, but also because much of Mamet's ‘common sense...