After some of playwright David Mamet's recent anemic attempts at whimsy (Romance, November), it is a pleasure to be reminded by his 1977 Broadway breakthrough, American Buffalo, how visceral and, yes, poetic he can be.

The poetry is of the fragmentary, high-profanity, elliptical street type, but at Palm Beach Dramaworks, a trio of capable actors are demonstrating that the dialogue need not sound disconcertingly stylized just because it looks that way on the page...

...Director William Hayes reins in the play by slowing its pace, transforming the repetitive, malaprop-laden conversations into something that approaches naturalism. A neat trick, and a boon to the play, regardless of what the playwright might think of it.

Dennis Creaghan turns in another fine performance as pony-tailed shop owner Donny...But the evening belongs to John Leonard Thompson as Teach, the swaggering, trigger-tempered bully, who enters and takes over the heist, just as Thompson takes over the production.

See American Buffalo and be reminded what a riveting storyteller Mamet can be.