Off-Central opens ‘wacky’ Mamet comedy

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet is best known for his tough-talking dramas (Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, Speed-the-Plow).

Yet for all the iconic titles on Mamet’s CV, including those written for TV and the movies, just one was always intended for young people (with a published recommendation that it’s for the under-14 set): The curiously named The Revenge of the Space Pandas or, Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock.

 A local production of Space Pandas – yes, it’s a comedy – opens Thursday at the Off-Central.

Half the cast consists of teenagers. David Warner, part of the adult cast, plays George Topax, supreme ruler of Crestview, Fourth World in the Goolagong System (that’s where young Binky and his time-traveling pals end up after a freak clock accident).

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Warner reports. “It’s ‘play,’ in the ultimate sense of the word. I think David Mamet was probably having a playful moment when he wrote it. He was letting his imagination run wild.

“And it’s fun working with both the younger and older crowd, to have those generational connections. And these kids are good. They have a good sense of comic timing – and it’s a completely wacky play, so making heads or tails of it is sometimes difficult.”

Warner, a freelance journalist who’s also Board President of the arts umbrella organization Creative Pinellas, says that while some of the jokes will sail over the heads of younger audience members, still others will make kids laugh and baffle the adults. It’s all part of the fun.

Warner himself began working in theater as a teenager. “It’s another muscle to use,” he says, “another way to express yourself and get you into a different world.

“It’s always been very satisfying. I’ve directed, I’ve acted, I’ve written plays. It’s just something in my blood, I guess. It’s a challenge that keeps going. You keep thinking ‘One of these days, I’ll figure out how this is supposed to work.’”

Find info and tickets for The Revenge of the Space Pandas here.