The Anarchist (play)

The Anarchist
Felicity Huffman played one of the lead roles in the 2015 revival of Mamet's play The Anarchist (photo 2014).
Written by	David Mamet
Date premiered	2012
Place premiered	Broadway
Original language	English
Genre	Drama
Setting	Prison parole review office

The Anarchist is a two-person 2012 play by David Mamet that opened in New York on Broadway and starred Patti LuPone and Debra Winger. The "anarchist" of the title has its origin related to and perhaps based upon members of the Weather Underground, Judith Clark and Kathy Boudin, former members of the Weather Underground, who took part in the Brink's robbery (1981).

The play is set in the office of a prison parole review officer who is seen questioning and conducting an extended interview with a long-term prisoner incarcerated for a Weather Underground-type crime during which she killed two police officers. The outcome denies the long-term prisoner access to parole based on the harsh nature of the crime and the lack of remorse shown for her crimes.

The New York production of the play was not well-received by critics. Writing in his New York Times review of 2 December 2012, Ben Brantley wrote: "Mr. Mamet has always been preoccupied with words both as power tools and as camouflage. That’s true whether the language is lowdown (as in “Glengarry” and “American Buffalo”) or high-flown (as in “Oleanna”). This has often involved a certain verbal self-consciousness among his characters. But it has never been as acute as in The Anarchist, in which both women are especially aware of words as instruments of misdirection and what Cathy calls the opacity of human motives./Theatergoers must really furrow their brows here just to follow the basic arguments, never mind the layers of motivation woven into them. And without giving away too much, I think it’s fair to reveal “Anarchist” basically concludes that all those polysyllabic words mean nothing, when you come right down to it. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. When you reach the end of Anarchist, you may feel you’ve traveled an unnecessarily winding road to get there."

Having officially opened on Sunday 2nd December 2012, producers posted closing notices the following Wednesday and cut the run short on 16 December, after only 23 previews and 17 performances.

The play opened in Madrid at the same time to positive reviews. "La anarquista" was directed by José Pascual with Magüi Mira as Cathy (the anarchist) and Ana Wagener as Ann (the prison officer).