Sitting in the corner of my room, in a box I've yet to unpack in my relatively new place, is a copy of the scripts for two David Mamet plays: Sexual Perversity in Chicago and The Duck Variations. I picked the copy up at a used book store over a decade ago and, while it wasn't my first exposure to Mamet (that would likely be the film adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, or maybe even The Spanish Prisoner), it was the first time I had ever laid eyes on the furious torrent of crackling words that make up his scripts.

There's a singular rhythm that comes through, even in written form, from Mamet's work. You scarcely need the clockwork precision that comes from the actors bringing his words to life. In particular, what comes through with these works is the comedy inherent in even the most dramatic of Mamet's plays. Yes, the looming relationship disaster of Sexual Perversity is what gives it its thrust, but the biting commentary of the many philosophical discussions between Dan and Bernard is ultimately what gives the play its lasting resonance and color.

Beginning with a preview night in Olympia on May 21st, Working Class Theatre Northwest will be putting up a production of another of Mamet's more comedic works, the 1977 play A Life in the Theatre. Just like a previous production put on by Working Class (The School For Lies), A Life in the Theatre is a self-reflexive study of the world inhabited by playwrights, actors and audiences.

Centered around aged, veteran actor Robert (Frank Thompson) and upcoming actor John (Mark Peterson), A Life in the Theatre follows two men at different points in their lives as they share the stage in various productions as they merge from a mentor/mentee relationship to something more combative, as egos and the demands of a life in the theater bear down on them. The gaps that exist between the old hands and the fresh-faced upstarts has long been a fascination of Mamet's, most starkly depicted in the antagonistic confrontations of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Directed by Luke Amundson (coincidentally the star of the aforementioned The School For Lies, in addition to his longtime involvement local theater, in general), the show will open in Olympia at the Midnight Sun for its first weekend run from the 21st through the 24th. Opening night, on the 21st, will be pay-what-you-can. After that, the show will come up to Tacoma for two more weekend runs at downtown venue 733, with the 28th also being a pay-what-you-can affair.

A Life in the Theatre, May 21-24, 8 p.m., $12, Midnight Sun, 113 N. Columbia Ave., Olympia, 360.259.2743

A Life in the Theatre, May 28-31, 8 p.m., $12, June 5-7, 733 Commerce, Tacoma, 253.344.3401