China Doll is David Mamet’s most recent work, written for Al Pacino.Two acts, two characters and a legal thriller atmosphere. Mickey Ross,wealthy financial tycoon, master of deception, swaggering unscrupulous capitalist, harasses and harasses his young assistant Carson. The seemingly devoted handyman secretary appears impassive in the face of the choleric billionaire, promptly responding to orders and wishes. Ross has given hisfiancée as a wedding pledge a sixty-million-dollar super-luxurious private jet. But the plane, purchased in Switzerland to avoid paying purchase taxes to the U.S. government, had to make an emergency landing in Canada. A flurry of phone calls with managers and lawyers provides,to the protagonist and the public, the information needed to understand that this is not an airline-related problem or an emergency landing at theToronto airport. His fiancée has been stopped at customs and there is a five million dollar fee to pay. It soon becomes clear that Mickey Ross has been set up. His conceit, his ways, which have made him unchallenged master of the world, have infuriated the Governor’s son, now running for the WhiteHouse.Adrenaline and frayed nerves are the fuel of a dramaturgy that proceeds by caustic tacks into the precarious fabric of our contemporaneity, reviewing its lies, clichés and ugliness without ever indulging in moralizing.The barrage of jokes, dry, incomplete, evocative, confirms the typical language of Mamet’s writing and keeps the tension high.“My relationship over the years with David Mamet has been one of the richest and most rewarding,” says Al Pacino, “Together we have done for projects, and the idea of bringing to life a new character from Mamet’s Play was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up… He is one of the most daunting and complex and difficult characters I have explored on stage. Itis a special gift for an actor, a new, different role.After Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet’s has been a constant voice in film andtheater, always unconventional and critical against the business world andthe illusions of the American dream in a society that in his words “teachesyou to rape and steal.’’ He is a man who has also taken controversial positions in politics and has often vehemently, skillfully and intelligently attacked political correctness, indeed made it a banner of his theater
