David Mamet said he has written a play about Harvey Weinstein.
Mamet mentioned the new script in an interview in the Chicago Tribune. The new work is called “Bitter Wheat,” and there’s a Chicago stage veteran, who’s now in films, interested in starring in it, according to the article.
No exact production plans or timeline for the play has been set, although Mamet tells the Tribune, “I was talking with my Broadway producer and he said, ‘Why don’t you write a play about Harvey Weinstein?’ And so I did.”
The playwright does not mention the producer by name, but it seems likely it’s Jeffrey Richards (“Spring Awakening”), who’s produced a string of Mamet plays on Broadway over the years, including recent, starry productions of “China Doll,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “The Anarchist,” “A Life in the Theater,” “Race,” “Speed-the-Plow” and “November.” Richards could not be reached for immediate comment.
Mamet previously tackled issues of sexual harassment in his famously controversial 1992 play “Oleanna,” which had a Broadway run in 2009 in a production that starred Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. (That revival was produced by a team led by Jeffrey Finn.)
There’s no word yet on what specifically the new play is about, or how directly it deals with the story of disgraced movie mogul Weinstein and the #MeToo movement that rose to prominence in the wake of his fall. He tells the Tribune, “Every society has to confront the ungovernable genie of sexuality and tries various ways to deal with it and none of them work very well. There is great difficulty when you are switching modes, which we seem to be doing now. People go crazy. They start tearing each other to bits.”
In the article, Mamet also discusses his new novel, “Chicago,” and his screenplay adaptation of “The Force” for Fox and director James Mangold.
(Excerpt) Read More in: Variety