In light of our recent recall election I offer, without comment, this passage from David Mamet's American Buffalo. Please let us know if you think we should consider the play for our next seaon.
[Donny and Teach are planning a house break-in to recover a coin, an American Buffalo nickel.
Teach takes out a revolver and begins to load it.]
DON: What's that?
TEACH: What?
DON: That.
TEACH: This "gun"?
DON: Yes
TEACH: What does it look like?
DON: A gun.
TEACH: It is a gun.
DON: I don't like it.
TEACH: Don't look at it.
DON: I'm serious
TEACH: So am I.
DON: We don't need a gun, Teach.
TEACH: I pray that we don't, Don.
DON: We don't, tell me why we need a gun?
TEACH: It's not a question do we need it . . . Need . . . Only that it makes me comfortable, okay? It helps me to relax.
So, God forbid, something inevitable occurs and the choice is (And I'm saying "god forbid") it's either him or us.
DON: Who?
TEACH: The guy. I'm saying God forbid the guy (or somebody) comes in, he's got a knife . . . a cleaver from one of those magnetic boards . . .?
DON: Yeah?
TEACH: . . . with the two strips . . . ?
DON: Yeah?
TEACH: And whack, and somebody is bleeding to death. This is all. Merely as a deterrent.
All the preparation in the world does not mean shit, the path of some crazed lunatic sees you as an invasion of his personal domain. Guys go nuts. Don, you know this. Public officials . .. Ax murderers . . . All I'm saying, look out for your own.
DON: I don't like the gun.
TEACH: It's a personal thing, Don. A personal thing of mine. A silly personal thing. I just like to have it along. Is this so unreasonable?
DON: I don't want it.
TEACH: I'm not going without it.
DON: Why do you want it?
TEACH: Protection of me and my partner. Protecttion, deterrence.
DON: I don't want it.
TEACH: I can't step down on this, Don. I have to go with it. The light of the way things as they are.
DON: Why?
TEACH: Because of the way things are.
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