Mamets Duck Variations
David Mamets Duck Variations is a 1972 play based around the mundane park bench
conversation of two characters, George and Emil. Through the topic of ducks and other
various wildlife, the theory of life and the world begins to emerge to reveal feelings about
death and their own existence. They search for the importance of a ducks activities as if
attempting to find meaning within themselves. Ironically, many of their discussions and
ramblings are untrue or irrelevant and leaves the reader or viewer placing them in some
position of knowledge or authority which they quite clearly do not have, or deserve for that
matter. Whether through the characters Mamet is trying to instill an animalistic instinct
within people or their surroundings or not, he does express a simplistic and mechanical
similarity between people within society and ducks within nature. It seems fruitless since
their theories and opinions are vague and meaningless, and one gets the feeling that the
play is pointless and unnecessary, and compared to Mamets other plays and works it is.
The idea that animals have a more natural life, one of purity and responsibility, gives them
comfort. They agree on most topics among these ramblings, but never stop to realize that
inconsistency of their ideas. In a way the play is thoughtless, but extremely flexible within
its themes. By the end of the play there is not much gratificationand transformation at all,
there is consistency. The consistency of thoughts, often incoherent ones, but thoughts none
the less that express life, whether its far too convoluted or not. This play reminds us of an
