The Duck Variations

The Duck Variations is a play by David Mamet (1947-).

(Sometimes referred to as Duck Variations)

The original text
The play is focused around two old men who randomly meet on a park bench. Although their conversations seem misguided, as they talk about ducks, many wise conversations are actually discussed.

The play was written in 1971, and initially performed in 1972 at the Saint Nicholas Theatre, directed by Mamet, but became famous when it was performed as part of a double bill with Sexual Perversity in Chicago at the Off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre in 1976, the two works winning the 1976 Obie Award as Best New American Play.

Translations and adaptations
Translated into Afrikaans by Louis van Niekerk with the title Eendsonderend.

Performance history in South Africa
1997: Presented by the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department as one of three plays (with Lunch Girls and Lunch) celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Space Theatre in the Kellerteater of the H.B. Thom Theatre complex, in May 1997. Directed by Gaerin Hauptfleisch with Abduragman Adams as Emil Varec and Keith Bain as George S. Aronovitz. Molly Möhr was the stage manager, decor and props by Leopoldt Senekal.

2011: Performed in Afrikaans as Eendsonderend at Aardklop, directed by Gert van Niekerk with Louis van Niekerk and Marius Weyers.

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