David Mamet's games in "Glengarry Glen Ross", "Homicide", and "House of Games"

David Mamet's use of play and games in his dramas illustrates the nature of play: its power to attract and hold players in its spell. Play and games fascinate and master the characters. Shelley Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross, Bob Gold in Homicide, and Margaret Ford in House of Games are convinced that they know the rules of the game and thus believe they are in control. They assume roles that they believe make them major players in the game they think they are playing. But rather than being in control of the game and its rules, each of these characters is an unwitting player in a larger game where they are the pawns. In addition, these characters contribute to their own victimization by breaking the rules of their own games. The audience participates in these characters' games and adventures very much as the characters themselves do and are thus mesmerized, mastered, and ultimately set up by the game that Mamet plays with them.