Reunion and Dark Pony: Two Plays Book

Two short, early plays by David Mamet. In the edition I read, Reunion is 26 pages long, Dark Pony only 5 pages. Both have two characters, a father and a daughter. Reunion was first staged in 1976, Dark Pony in 1977 - and, on its first performance, Dark Pony played in a double bill with Reunion. If American Buffalo showed a step forward from his previous work, these two plays perhaps show a step back: they feel like promising works by a talented dramatist, but they also feel like apprentice pieces, Mamet still finding his legs, discovering his territory and methods. In Reunion an adult daughter meets her estranged father. He is nervous, uncertain, makes excuses for his absence during her childhood, talks of his time as an alcoholic. Everything is tentative, as though they are jostling for position, trying to find if their relationship will work. There is no resolution at the end, the father seemingly wanting to move on from the failures of the past and look to the future, the daughter wanting the emotional security that was missing from her childhood because of her absent father. Both plays feel like sketches: they are intriguing works and feel like a young playwright finding his feet - but if you place them into the context of Mamet's career, as works following American Buffalo, they are a little disappointing.