a play by David Mamet

American Buffalo is David Mamet's broadway debut. A trio of inept burglars go on a journey full of emotion and ironic humor.

American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet that had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two additional showcase productions, it opened on Broadway in 1977.

As is emblematic of Mamet's writing style, the play's dialogue is sometimes terse and often vulgar. 

Mamet's profanity is not employed for shock value, but is rather an integral component of his characters' "profane poetry", which, according to frequent collaborator Gregory Mosher, "worked the iambic pentameter out of the vernacular of the underclass." The characters' sometimes vulgar lexicon, moreover, may be seen as psychologically necessary armor against their brutal environment.

Critic Frank Rich, in reviewing the 1983 production for The New York Times, called it "one of the best American plays of the last decade."

Grove Press 1976

Book Club edition

Hardcover

111 pages