I HAVEN'T BEFORE heard anyone draw comparisons between the problems facing a nation inheriting an empire and those facing an honest young capitalist about to inherit the family business, as sketched out by Harley Granville-Barker in The Voysey Inheritance. The intrigue lurking beneath the surface in Granville-Barker's original play appealed to American Conservatory Theater artistic director Carey Perloff and playwright-screenwriter David Mamet, whose adaptation of the work (with Perloff directing) has its world premiere at ACT. Mamet has a unique feel for the forces that shape America's power brokers and how the powerful, in turn, work to shape those forces. In The Voysey Inheritance, the protagonist spirals into moral decline as he learns to reckon with reality – and as he does, it's hard not to hear America's unapologetic neocons as they repeatedly strong-arm the nation into accepting the dictates and demands of their bellicose, voraciously greedy version of "reality." While Mamet isn't known for gracious apologies or civilized behavior, you'd probably want him on your side in a bar brawl – even if you're steadfast and principled in your low opinion of random fisticuffs. Which is to say that The Voysey Inheritance finds the man right where he belongs. ACT's 2003 production of Mamet's American Buffalo was as good as it gets. I can't wait for this one. Previews Fri/18-Sat/19 and Tues/22, 8 p.m. (also Sat/19, 2 p.m.); Sun/20, 7 p.m. Opens March 23, 8 p.m. Runs March 24-26, 30-31, April 1-2, 4-9, 12-16, 8 p.m. (also March 26, 30, April 2, 9, 13, and 16, 2 p.m.); March 27, April 3, and 10, 2 p.m. (also April 10, 7 p.m.); March 29 and April 17, 7 p.m., 415 Geary, S.F. $11-$68. (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org. (J.H. Tompkins)