[A Life in the Theatre is Mamet's] least characteristic play. Ordinarily he works from an oblique angle of vision, in flat tones. Life is all surface flamboyance, sight gags and gimmickry, lush language and posturing—in short, closer to a Feydeau farce than to the Beckett-like minimalism to which Mamet more typically aspires…. At its best, Life is a mildly amusing diversion; at its more frequent worst, it is a tedious, offensively banal caricature of what daily life in the theater is ac...

David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre offers a decidedly unglamorous view of the show business world. It emphasises not the ecstatic moments of applause, nor the passionate relationships of those caught up in that world, but the mundane routine of the acting profession. The play's title is surprisingly literal. It is a way of life that the drama seeks to evoke, and it concentrates exclusively upon the theatre, showing almost no concern for anything that takes place beyond the stage door. The pla...

I disliked [A Life in the Theatre]. But I soon realized that my annoyance was not induced by the fact that it was a trifle (talented artists are permitted their piffle) but by the gush with which it has been received by most of the press—celebrated as if it were the best of Mamet. It is composed of glimpses of two actors, preparing back-stage for performances and, on stage, acting bits from plays they appear in at various times. The "life in the theatre" consists of the display of such ...