Piven: Mamet show a reflection of reality

NEW YORK, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Actor Jeremy Piven says his newest endeavor, a play by writer David Mamet showing on New York's Broadway, is a reflection of today's problems.

The 43-year-old actor, who plays agent Ari Gold on the popular HBO series "Entourage," said Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" may have been written in 1988, but can still be interpreted based on current events, The New York Times reported Sunday.

"It's actually more true today, what he's saying," Piven said. "He talks about the collapse of the economy ... . He makes these metaphors for the correlation between the diseases in the body and the diseases in the world and radiation as a metaphor for the world kind of collapsing."

Thursday's premiere at New York's Barrymore Theater will mark Piven's Broadway debut, the Times said.

For Piven, balancing the workload of "Entourage" with his first stage production has been a struggle.

"I just felt it was really hard to walk away from," he told the Times, adding, "I should be taking a break right now. I really should. I don't know if you can tell, but I look like I've been beaten."