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Article: `Cryptogram' Echoes Mamet's Childhood
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- April 13, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK David Mamet's new play, "The Cryptogram," is unquestionably
the most devastating depiction of emotional child abuse I've ever
seen on a stage.
Over its 80 minutes, Mamet's unutterably grim family portrait
also goes a long way in explaining the pervasive streak of hostility
and psychological cruelty at the core of the Chicago-bred
playwright's work. And not surprisingly, as good old Dr. Freud might
have guessed, the root of the rage can be found in a deeply traumatic
childhood.
"The Cryptogram," which opens tonight at New York's intimate
Westside Theatre (I caught a press preview last weekend), has already
been staged in London, and received its American debut in Boston in ...