Troy Kotsur, Matthew Ryan Pest, and Paul Raci in "American Buffalo" (Photo by Noel Bass)

One would be surprised and even skeptical at an attempt to convey the personality of David Mamet’s language through American Sign Language, and a far easier approach might be to shed a new light on Mamet, emphasizing not the dialogue itself but the silence in between. This might be expected, but Deaf West Theatre hardly strives for what’s expected. Rather, this collaboration with Cal State Los Angeles boldly translates Mamet’s signature style of dialogue into ASL, capturing the playwright’s fiery essence with brilliant insight and delicious aggression.

The play follows the schemes of a junk shop owner, Don (Paul Raci), his single employee, Bob (Matthew Ryan Pest), and his Poker buddy, Teach (Troy Kotsur), after Don suspects being cheated by a mysterious customer who purchases a buffalo nickel for a surprisingly high price; but is it high enough? The plan to rob the man’s house for his coin collection goes awry when Teach gets more and more aggressive and threatens to jeopardize everyone’s safety—including his own. Mamet’s vulgar, fragmented and rapid-fire dialogue colors an imposing cast of characters desperate for masculine retribution and self-affirmation.

Troy Kutsur’s Teach leaps off the page as never before, and his profane and unrestrained signing introduces audiences to a new dialect of ASL that most have likely never seen before—Mametian. The intricate flurries of standard ASL combined with some of those universal gestures we all know and love (I’ll let you use your imagination here) communicates unflinchingly the rough-and-tumble world that Teach, Don, and Bob call their own. Paul Raci provides an excellent and approachable middleman, clearly torn between his sympathies for the naïve Bob and the reckless Teach—an element of innocence and ambition long lost and the unforgiving world of blue-collar crime to which he’s grown accustomed. Matthew Ryan Pest succeeds as a foil to Teach as an inexperienced and oddly aloof manipulator whose youthful energy and ambition get him way in over his head.

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The combination of spoken dialogue and ASL is particularly stunning for this production in revealing character relationships; it deepens the friendship between Don and Teach and reveals that, for all their faults and aggressive banter that seems to be lost in translation, they are two extreme men for whom the stakes have been set incredibly high by profound financial and emotional need that truly need each other. Despite their differences, they speak the same language—both literally and metaphorically. Although Bob is familiar with ASL, the dichotomy between hearing and non-hearing appears to drive more of a rift in their relationship and enhances an element of their relationship already in the text, as they are two characters who simply cannot see eye-to-eye.

Stephen Rothman’s direction gracefully and fluidly navigates territory unfamiliar to most directors—a requirement to appeal to both hearing and non-hearing audiences. Visual stage composition is, in itself, revealing of relationships, and the outstanding signing revealed that all actors were very clear about their objectives and what they were communicating at all times. In a play that is, in many ways, about a lack of communication, the moment-to-moment drama of the play was ironically but appropriately communicated very clearly.

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Ken George’s scenic design was a special highlight of the production. The junk in the shop, scattered not only on the stage but suspended above the playing area and completely enveloping the proscenium, served as a subdued jab at a commodity America. Many of the “valuables” in the shop, such as a giant plastic sculpture of an American Indian or a traditional Chinese fan, speak to the cultural appropriation of a nation struggling to articulate what exactly it means to be American. Mamet’s search for American identity—present, to some extent, in nearly all of his plays, is a powerful visual theme in the design.

Deaf West’s “American Buffalo” is a viscerally satisfying experience all around, gently weaving sight and sound together to provide an experience that no other Los Angeles theatre company can replicate. The unique community surrounding Deaf West is one that yearns with dramatic curiosity, and the enveloping darkness as the lights go down shelters newcomers with a sense that they have just become a part of a larger audience than themselves—one that seeks for new modes of theatre for new participants. A Deaf West show is worth attending simply for what makes the company inherently unlike any other, and this excellent adaptation of a classic American play makes it an absolute must-see.

"American Buffalo" is playing through March 8 at the State Playhouse on the CSULA campus (5152 State University Drive, Los Angeles). Tickets are $12-$25. For more information visit www.DeafWest.org

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