Mathilde Dratwa Explains How and Why David Mamet Became the Focus of Her New Play

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this month, A Play About David Mamet Writing a Play About Harvey Weinstein is soon coming to The Judith O. Rubin Theater at Playwrights Horizons as a reading to benefit the New York Civil Liberties Union. Produced by George Strus of Benson Drive Productions, Rachel Sussman of Soto Productions, and Isabelle Mann of Funroe Productions, the one-night-only event will feature a star-studded cast that includes Abbi Jacobson, Billy Eichner, Heléne Yorke, and Kara Young. 

The woman behind the concept is playwright Mathilde Dratwa. In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, she explained the play's origins. "The genesis for the play happened when I read a tiny little blurb that [Mamet] was writing about Harvey Weinstein and that the play would get produced in London. It made me absurdly angry..." she explained. "Why? Why this playwright? It was something so absurd. And I just thought, if Mamet gets to write about Weinstein, then I get to write about Mamet."

A Play About David Mamet Writing a Play About Harvey Weinstein is exactly what it sounds like—and not at all what it sounds like: it’s about Mamet (who has, in real life, written a play about Weinstein); it’s about way too many dudes named David; but, first and foremost, it’s about three women—each with her own reasons to be pretty… angry. 

"I think [we should produce more] female and non-binary and playwrights with disabilities. I think that there is an expansiveness to what is possible in the theater," she continued. "I just really want to believe in the theater as a place where we can all belong. And so I don’t think it’s about, let’s not produce this playwright. It’s more about all these names, who are they? Where are they? Let’s produce all of these people and more."

Read the full interview here.