Romance (Mamet play)

A courtroom is presided over by The Judge, whose allergy medications make him so drowsy he repeatedly falls asleep. Later, he becomes so manic he eventually ends up stripping in the middle of the court. Meanwhile, The Prosecutor has to deal with his flamboyant and often difficult-to-control boyfriend Bernard, nick-named Bunny. Bunny unexpectedly comes to the court room, "bringing out the inner Queer Guy in the Judge and his Bailiff.^[6] The gentile Defense Attorney is swapping racial slurs with his Jewish client, The Defendant. The Defendant suddenly comes up with a brilliant idea to solve all the problems in the Middle East.

Note: only Bernard has a given name

Ben Brantley, in his review for The New York Times wrote:"In 'Romance,' the latest work from this most imitated and parodied of living American playwrights, Mr. Mamet knocks the four-letter stuffing out of his own staccato style. He then proceeds to beat up on classic farce, ethnic and sexual stereotypes and, it might be argued, his audience. It's a take-no-prisoners approach that, unfortunately, doesn't capture laughs either."^[6]

The CurtainUp reviewer wrote:"The whole idea for Mr. Mamet's main intent (besides his obvious intent to have fun and entertain) is to use a zany trial of a case that remains purposefully vague as a launch pad to skewer everything from our justice system to politics, homosexuality, pedophile priests and religious prejudice.... The Atlantic Theater's artistic director Neil Pepe keeps the screwball elements bouncing along with laugh a minute momentum and the cast fully captures the madcap spirit."^[7]