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Mar. 27--The idea of taking your kid to a play penned by David Mamet sounds like an act of parental dysfunction roughly akin to waking your little tykes around midnight for glasses of milk, tuning the television to Cinemax, and handing them the remote.
But fear not, oh guardians of youth, the prince of profanity, the emperor of the expletive, the senator of the cynical, did in fact pen some silly, minor children's plays, now rarely revived.
Not only does "The Revenge of the Space Pandas or Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock" have no objectionable content, it's quite sweet. Weirdly so.
And in the persona of one Leonard "Binky" Rudich (Blaine Hogan), a diminutive prepubescent from Waukegan who journeys light-years away to outer space and back, you can perchance spy the nervous little boy inside the snarky adult Mamet. "Binky," the little dude in the big glasses with the cool clock, has the same precious intellectualism, the same desperate need for a workable, viable community, the same sense of being about three steps ahead of everyone else but not entirely sure what to do with those gifts for the good of the planet.
Maybe the Mamet scholars have missed the point all these years. Maybe this is the play that truly reveals a master playwright of obfuscation. Maybe this is Mamet's version of Oscar Wilde's "Salome." Maybe here lies his inner child.
All that will be lost on your kids (one hopes). But those about 8 and older probably will enjoy this whimsical piece's sense of fantastical adventure, which is here realized in epic proportion by director Steve Scott, right down to splendiferous costumes from Tatjana Radisic, an original musical score from Alaric Jans, and a giant pumpkin.
Scott's young cast doesn't look entirely sure whether this really is supposed to be children's theater (as in reaching out to the audience and making everything really believable from a kid's perspective) or taking part in some kind of, well, Mamet Festival, where there's an in-joke taking place for the benefit of the cognoscenti ("Mamet and Children: Discuss"). The show wants to please both factions at once, which is not a realizable goal. It would do better to take firmer steps in the direction of the needs of the youngsters in the house.
Still, the thing is droll and harmless enough. And despite the play's boyish sensibility, there's a knockout performance from Maribeth Monroe as Vivian Mooster, who sits in no-one's back seat. It ain't easy for an actress to steal a Mamet play ("Boston Marriage" aside), but this punky sidekick kicks the boys (and the Space Pandas) in the teeth. Lucky for Monroe, her character was penned before Mamet came to his adult senses.
"The Revenge of the Space Pandas or Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock"
When: Through April 22
Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.
Running time: 1 hour
Tickets: $8-15 at 312-443-3800
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