`NEIGHBORHOOD'' MEETS `CRYPTOGRAM'' TWO PERSONAL PLAYS TAKE ON NEW MEANING.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

David Mamet's plays have been called many things. Macho. Minimalist. Angry. Funny. Brilliant.

One rarely heard epithet, however, is ``autobiographical.'' Although Mamet renders the smarmy con artists, embattled salesmen and desperate lowlifes who populate his plays with knowing precision, we rarely sense that these characters are self-portraits.

Maybe it's because they seldom utter the kind of soul-rending confessions we associate with the first-person psychodramas of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. Mamet's characters don't tell us much about their families or their childhoods. They tend to be self-contained and focused on the present, their motives frequently cryptic, their desire for self-knowledge minuscule.

That's one reason why director Michael Bloom is looking forward to seeing what happens when ``The Cryptogram'' and ``The Old Neighborhood,'' two one-act plays regarded as Mamet's most personal to date, are paired together at the Geffen Playhouse.

First performed in the mid-1990s, the two short plays can be seen as a set of thematic bookends.

``The Cryptogram'' traces a 75-minute journey into a boy's childhood at a time when his illusions of peace and security are about to be permanently shattered. Its very literal title derives from the code language spoken by the combative adults surrounding the boy, a language whose ominous meanings seem to lie beyond his grasp.

``The Old Neighborhood'' - which itself is a 90-minute triptych of one-act plays - also centers on a journey into the past. In it, the middle-aged Bobby Gould returns to his Chicago hometown to excavate old friendships and old loves while attempting to chart a new future. Like the characters in ``The Cryptogram,'' those in ``The Old Neighborhood'' also speak in a highly personalized language, one often marked by disillusionment and frustration.

Bloom thinks the double bill will allow audiences to spot connections between the boy in ``The Cryptogram'' and the man who has grown up to be Bobby Gould.

``I think the continuity is really a kind of autobiographical thread that one can read from `The Cryptogram' through `The Old Neighborhood,' '' says Bloom, who teaches directing at the University of Texas at Austin.

``I think it was (Carl) Jung who said that men around the age of 40 or more start to go back to their past, look into their past a little more closely and examine what connection there might be to their roots. I think it's a real archetypal journey, and that's what really intrigued me about `The Old Neighborhood.'

``Wed together, these plays give a pretty revealing portrait of a writer who has not been terribly personally revealing before these plays.''

To help underscore that continuity, two actors will appear in both plays. Ed Begley Jr. will reprise the role of Del, which he created in the American premiere of ``The Cryptogram'' at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston, and also play Carl in ``The Old Neighborhood.'' Christine Dunford, who was Peter Fonda's drug-addicted daughter-in-law in ``Ulee's Gold,'' plays Donny in ``The Cryptogram'' and Deeny in ``The Old Neighborhood.''

Never exactly famous for taking benign views of his subjects, Mamet startled the theater world with ``The Cryptogram's'' sensitive and sympathetic portrait of the young boy, John. In recent interviews, Mamet has acknowledged (if vaguely) the play's roots in his own childhood, as the son of brilliant but emotionally abusive parents.

``I think he's tough on the boy, but I think it's basically compassionate,'' says Bloom, ``and he's tough in the way that the boy is quite assertive and, one might say, aggressive, because that's the only way he can really discover the world. And that's very much the world of the writer, often.''

Critics also noticed a greater degree of emotional directness in ``The Old Neighborhood'' than they'd come to expect from the author of ``American Buffalo'' and ``Glengarry Glen Ross.'' A New York Times reviewer described the play as Mamet's ``most emotionally accessible drama to date.''

Warmth and fuzziness, of course, aren't the qualities that have established Mamet as one of the century's most respected and influential playwrights. It's the deadpan chill of his profanity-laden humor, the rich spareness of his staccato dialogue and the cool, cinematic objectivity of his scene construction that make his voice probably the most recognizable in the American theater.

Mamet's ability to pare dialogue to the bone and leap directly into the action of the play allows him to virtually eliminate exposition, knowing that contemporary audiences catch on quickly.

That talent has helped earn Mamet an enviable dual career in the theater and Hollywood. With screenplay credits including ``Wag the Dog,'' ``The Untouchables'' and ``The Verdict,'' plus such films of his own as ``Homicide,'' ``House of Games'' and ``The Spanish Prisoner,'' Mamet is the only major American playwright ever to have enjoyed a successful Hollywood screenwriting career, Bloom says.

Bloom says he used to think Sam Shepard was the most influential American playwright of the last 20 years. Now he believes that Mamet's plays, with their brusque syntax and violent atmospherics, and the dark, lyrical satires of John Guare (``Six Degrees of Separation'') have had the most influence on the subsequent generation of American playwrights.

Strangely, although Bloom has directed many works by contemporary playwrights such as Donald Margulies, Anthony Clarvoe and Jon Robin Baitz, this will be his first Mamet play. Bloom says he got a feel for the author when they met to talk over lunch last fall in Cambridge, Mass., where Mamet lives.

``He loves to tell funny stories; he's a real joker. I haven't been the butt of any practical jokes, but I understand he's one of the great practical jokers. He's a very funny guy. Very serious and extremely funny.''

THE FACTS

What: ``The Old Neighborhood'' and ``The Cryptogram.''

Starring: Robin Bartlett, Dennis Boutsikaris, Ed Begley Jr., Christine Dunford, Will Rothhaar and David Warshofsky.

Behind the scenes: Written by David Mamet. Directed by Michael Bloom.

Where: The Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.

When: Regular performances begin today. Plays will run in repertory Tuesdays through Sundays through Feb. 14. Call the Geffen for specific performance dates.

Tickets: $30-$40. Call [phone].

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Photo: (1--2--Cover--Color) MR. MAMET'S `NEIGHBORHOOD'

Two plays at the Geffen explore acclaimed playwright's roots

(3) ``The Old Neighborhood,'' starring Robin Bartlett and Dennis Boutsikaris, is paired with ``The Cryptogram'' at the Geffen Playhouse. The two works are regarded as Mamet's most personal plays.