I count myself fortunate to have seen the original London stage production, directed by Harold Pinter and still with its original cast of David Suchet as John and Lia Williams as Carol, when it transferred from the Royal Court to the Duke Of York's in autumn 1993.
The remarkable thing about that production was that Pinter had persuaded Mamet to allow use of Mamet's original ending, which the author had abandoned between the initial run in Cambridge, Massachusetts and its off-Broadway premiere later in 1992.
The play had arrived from New York with such a reputation, akin, some suggested, to melodrama or, I would have said based on the reports at the time, some kind of stunt polemic, that I was wary of it and only chose to go on the day because it seemed an easier sell to the friends I went with.
In the popular imagination, according to the play's caricatured notoriety, we 3 young, conservative, males might have been expected to side vocally with the male character. However, the performance we saw that afternoon astonishingly managed to balance our sympathies so finely between the 2 protagonists that we were convinced Mamet was not aiming for the polarization many had talked about. Obviously, he did plan an uncomfortable time for the audience (and the performers), but there were no cheers, shouts nor pantomime boos.
Only 1 line produced a single audible gasp (not from us)
Carol: I saw you, Professor. For two semesters sit there, stand there and exploit our, as you thought, “paternal prerogative,” and what is that but rape; I swear to God.
This was a Saturday matinee in October and maybe there was just an especially reverent crowd in that day, but I doubt it.
While the main credit must go to the actors and Pinter's direction, I felt that it was also the ending which helped cement the surprising recognition of dual sympathies, at the expense of some ambiguity.
The printed programme contained the complete text of the play, but it was the New York version, so evidently even Pinter's powers of persuasion only went so far. In fact, I can't see that the Massachusetts / London version has ever been published.
25 years later, I believe I recall the final line of that original climax, although memory might have failed me,
John (reading from the statement which Carol's group has prepared): I have let down the young.
If Pinter was referring to that when he wrote,
"The last line seems to me the perfect summation of the play. It's dramatic ice" , then I think he was right.
The following year, in his film version now to be released by Indicator, Mamet reverted to the New York ending (albeit with 1 minor
tweak).
To me, that reversion was as disappointing as the casting of Debra Eisenstadt.
Otherwise, I agree with Domino that Eisenstadt was the weak link in the film, although Lia Williams would have been my choice.
