Regarding his own work, David Mamet admits that “What I write about is what I think our society is missing. And this is communication at a basic level.” In his play Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet uses an ironic technique to illustrate his beliefs about communication: in a play composed almost entirely of salesmen, we are forced to listen to characters who cannot listen to themselves. Mamet's use of dialogue works on two levels. First, it serves as the only action in the game; apart from conversations between the men, nothing else happens. The script contains little description and indication of the scene. Everything is about dialogue. The second function of dialogue is to show the lack of meaning that words can contain. The men's conversations, the pace of their speech, and the interruptions make up the entire play, but these factors are ultimately rendered useless by the conclusion of the second act. Because many of the play's major conflicts occur offstage, the audience must rely on the characters' words for an explanation of what happened. This dependence forces the audience to figure out which words are important to communicating the message of the work and which words have no real meaning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first act begins with a brief description of Williamson and Levene sitting at “a booth in a Chinese restaurant” (15). The only other information offered about the characters is that Williamson is a man in his forties and Levene is a man in his fifties. With his lack of characterization, Mamet forces the reader to jump right into the conversations between the characters to find out who they are. Each scene revolves around what the men talk about, but not what they are actually doing. For example, in a conversation between Moss and Aaronow, they discuss the relationship between speech and action: Aaronow: We're just talking about it. As an idea. (39).