What happens in Glengarry Glen Ross?
A Chicago real estate office. A sales contest. The rules are simple and brutal: the top performer wins the premium leads — the Glengarry leads and the Glen Ross leads — and keeps their job. The rest are fired. The salespeople have until the end of the month to close enough deals to survive.
The contest
The play opens at night, in a restaurant, with a series of two-person conversations. Each one reveals a different response to the same impossible pressure. One salesperson tries to bribe the office manager for better leads. Another schemes to steal them. A third is working a mark — a potential buyer — with the silky, predatory fluency of someone who has nothing left to lose but their technique.
The crime
The second act opens the following morning in the ransacked office. Someone broke in overnight. The leads have been stolen. A detective is interviewing each member of staff. Who did it? And what does it say about a system that drove someone to it?
The human cost
Mamet's play is savage about institutions but compassionate about individuals — particularly Levene, an older salesperson who was once the best in the office and is now fighting not just for her job but for the dignity of someone who believes she still has something to offer. The play asks what we become when survival is the only thing on the table.
Why Glengarry Glen Ross matters
The play's history
Glengarry Glen Ross had its world premiere at the National Theatre in 1983, directed by Bill Bryden, and transferred to the West End and Broadway the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1984. It has been revived repeatedly on both sides of the Atlantic. The most recent Broadway production starred Kieran Culkin and was directed by Patrick Marber in 2025. The 1992 film, with Al Pacino as Roma, Jack Lemmon as Levene, and Alec Baldwin in a famous cameo, introduced it to a wider audience.
Why an all-female cast?
Mamet wrote the play's male characters as studies in a particular kind of institutionalised brutality — men who have internalised a system that treats them as disposable and pass that brutality on. The critical conversation around the play has always involved the question of whether its themes are specifically about masculinity or about power more broadly. Marber's all-female production is a direct answer to that question: it argues for the latter. The desperation, the manipulation, the moral collapse — none of it requires men.
Patrick Marber's relationship with the play
Marber is best known as a playwright — Closer, Dealer's Choice — but his directorial career has included Leopoldstadt and The Producers in the West End and, most recently, the 2025 Broadway revival of this very play. Having directed Glengarry Glen Ross once already, at the highest level, he is now returning to it with a fundamentally different casting concept. That is a director engaging seriously with a text, not repeating himself.
Performance schedule
- Opens: Thursday 4 June 2026
- Press night: Wednesday 17 June 2026
- Final performance: Saturday 18 July 2026
- Running time: Approximately 1 hour 45 minutes (subject to confirmation)
A strictly limited run
Glengarry Glen Ross plays for just six weeks at the Old Vic. With the casting, the production concept, and the press night falling just over halfway through the run, early booking is strongly recommended. Short runs at the Old Vic sell out quickly, particularly when the critical response matches the advance expectation.
Age guidance and content
Recommended for ages 16 and above.
Glengarry Glen Ross contains very strong language throughout — Mamet's dialogue is notoriously, deliberately profane. The play also contains themes of moral corruption, manipulation, and institutional brutality. The content is firmly adult and the play makes no concessions to comfort. It is not suitable for children or younger teenagers.
Cast
- Rosa Salazar as Roma (High Noon, Alita: Battle Angel)
- Indira Varma as Levene — Olivier Award-winner (Oedipus, The Night Manager, The Capture)
- Mercedes Bahleda as Lingk
- Nancy Crane as Aaronow
- Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Williamson
- Florence Odumosu as Baylen
- Niky Wardley as Moss
Creative team
- Writer: David Mamet
- Director: Patrick Marber
- Venue: The Old Vic (in the round)
Getting there
- Tube: Waterloo (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern, Waterloo & City) — 5 min walk
- Alternative: Lambeth North (Bakerloo) — 8 min walk; Southwark (Jubilee) — 10 min walk
- Bus: Routes 1, 4, 26, 59, 68, 168, 172, 176 on Waterloo Road
- Address: 103 The Cut, London SE1 8NB
About The Old Vic
The Old Vic is one of London's oldest and most storied theatres, dating from 1818. Under Matthew Warchus, who departs after this season, it has staged some of the most ambitious productions in British theatre — Groundhog Day, Girl from the North Country, A Christmas Carol, and the Arcadia revival that transfers to the Duke of York's this summer. The venue is a producing theatre rather than a receiving house, meaning every production is developed in-house and built for the space.
Accessibility
The Old Vic offers wheelchair-accessible seating, hearing enhancement systems, and accessible toilet facilities. This production is staged in-the-round, which may affect standard accessible seating positions. Contact the Old Vic box office in advance to confirm arrangements for specific access requirements.
