” Photo: Bif Dangerfield tries to concentrate on the work in front of him as Roy Feiring, Halim Dunsky, Ken Church, and David Licastro get intense during a scene from Glengarry Glen Ross.Matt Johnson/staff photoAt the TheaterGlengarry Glen Ross, a play by David Mamet, produced and directed by Richard EvansAn Island Theatre Production, by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.April 7-9 and 14-16, 7:30 p.m.The Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, LangleyAll seats $12; special price Sunday, April 9, $6; opening night performance includes a post-show reception hosted by The Star Bistro. Tickets at WICA, 221-8268Rated R – Due to language, no one under 17 will be admitted without parentProgramCast (in order of appearance)Shelly Levene – David LicastroJohn Williamson – Roy FeiringDavid Moss – Bif DangerfieldGeorge Aaronow – Halim Dunsky Richard Roma – Ken ChurchJames Lingk – Joe PatrickBaylen – Kirk PrindleRepairman – Jim ScullinRepairman – Dwight Zehn Act OneThe RestaurantAct TwoThe OfficeChicago, 1982 Island audiences are no strangers to serious theater. They’ve seen the mad comedy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; watched the farewells of Irish families heading to America in Martha Furey’s poignant Evening at the Crossroads; and felt the anguished melancholy of David Churchill’s Hamlet.Another theatrical adventure awaits theatergoers this weekend when Island Theatre opens David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of driven desperation and brutal comedy, Glengarry Glen Ross — called by its producers a furious American drama about the high price of success and the consequences of selling out. The story of four fast-talking salesmen in the world of real estate has been called intimate but powerful theatre at its best, depicting cutthroat marketplace morality at its worst (Jeff Smith in the San Francisco Bay Times). Rich with irony and metaphor, the play is a devastating illustration of the addictive nature of a random reward system in which a few winning pay-offs are enough to keep a fraternity of hustlers hooked on the art of the con. Moviegoers will remember the film version of the play that starred Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon, Jonathan Pryce, Alec Baldwin, and Alan Arkin.Now Island producer and director Richard Evans brings it to the stage at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.I’m a huge fan of Mamet, Evans said. He’s utterly real. He’s an actor’s playwright, and the best American playwright for an ensemble cast. This cast of nine men has a long list of credits, from dramatic and comedic work to improvisation and directing, both here and in regional and even national productions.In auditions they read brilliantly, Evans said. I’m thrilled with every one of them. They work as a unit — no head butting, no egos of a destructive nature. It’s the easiest work for me.Evans added that Jim Scullin has been invaluable in building the sets: a Chinese restaurant that turns into an office. Rehearsal visitor Drew Kampion said even the rehearsal was arguably the best dramatic performance I’ve seen on the island, this side of the Island County commissioners’ hearing room. Kampion calls the emotional focus intense and unwavering. I felt palpable angst for David Licastro’s Shelly Levene. I grieved for Joe Patrick’s duped James Lingk, and I hated Roy Feiring as office manager John Williamson. Halim Dunsky fully transcended himself as the weary George Aaronow, and Kirk Prindle ominously incarnated as the cop, Baylen.But the fire-and-brimstone duo of Ken Church (as Richard Roma) and BifDangerfield (as Dave Moss) made the hair stand up on my goosebumps. Glengarry Glen Ross is ostensibly about real estate, but these are archetypical human dramas at work here, brilliantly excised and transplanted to the stage by one of the true masters of understated dialogue and nuanced gesture, in the hands of Evans and this cast of local heroes.Evans has done Mamet before. His production of American Buffalo was super successful, he said. It was risky, but nobody walked. With Glengarry Glen Ross he says he is again working with a challenging play.It’s serious stuff, he said. That seems likely for both the players and the audience.Evans promises a new and BIG production in April 2001 when he and Michael Licastro (and a local cast of 30) will take audiences to the ultimate destination via song and dance and a scary South Seas romance at Club Ded. Reserve caskets now, Evans said. It should be chilling.”