Earlier this year I was fortunate to see the London revival of David Mamet’s GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS at the Playhouse Theatre with an outstanding cast lead by Christian Slater. All of them signed sketches I did and have previously posted, except this one of Oliver Ryan… until now. Synonymous with the Royal Shakespeare Company since 2009, the Welsh actor has played many of the Bard’s memorable characters, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Benvolio, Malcolm and Oswald on the UK and New York stages.

In David Mamet’s most famous and Pulitzer Prize winning play about testosterone-raddled real estate agents and the ‘excavation of the desperation that lies under the alpha male ego’, Oliver is Baylen, the police detective who spends most of the Second Act offstage in a back office interrogating the salesmen about their knowledge of a break-in. While he makes brief appearances on stage, his ‘presence’ increases the tension during the act as he seeks to find the culprit and make an arrest.

Oliver signed my sketch along with the rest of the cast at the stage door in January.