Oleanna is a two-character play by David Mamet about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students who accuses him of sexual harassment and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure. A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American Author, Essayist, Playwright, Screenwriter and A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior Academic 's Contractual right not to have their position terminated The play's title, taken from a folk song, refers to a 19th-century escapist vision of utopia[1]. Oleanna is a Norwegian Folk song which was translated into English and popularized in the United States by former Weavers member Escapism is mental diversion by means of Entertainment or Recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily stress. Utopia is a name for an ideal community taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional Island in the
The play premiered in May 1992 in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the first production of Mamet's new Back Bay Theater Company[2]. The year 1992 in literature involved some significant events and new books Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. The premiere featured William H. Macy as John, a "smug, pompous, insufferable man whose power over academic lives he unconsciously abuses"[2]. William Hall Macy Jr (born March 13, 1950) is an Academy Award -nominated double Emmy - and Screen Actors Guild Award -winning Rebecca Pidgeon played the female lead, Carol, "Mamet's most fully realized female character, . Rebecca Pidgeon (born October 10 or October 25, 1963 or 1965) is a Scottish-American actress singer and songwriter and the . . a mousy, confused cipher" whose failure to comprehend concepts and precepts presented in John's class motivated her appeal for personal instruction[2]. The part of Carol is said to have been written for Pidgeon[2].
In October, a year after the Anita Hill - Clarence Thomas hearings[1] which "crystallized and concretized"[2] Mamet's dramatization, it appeared off-Broadway at New York City's Orpheum Theatre, with Macy and Pidgeon reprising their roles. Anita Faye Hill (born) is a professor of social policy law and women's studies at Brandeis University at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American Jurist. He has been serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City. The production included a rewritten third scene[2]. Critic Frank Rich provides a summary of the play in his review of the off-Broadway production:
- Oleanna . Frank Rich (born June 2, 1949 in Washington DC) is a Columnist for The New York Times who focuses on American politics . . is an impassioned response to the Thomas hearings. As if ripped right from the typewriter, it could not be more direct in its technique or more incendiary in its ambitions. In Act I, Mr. Mamet locks one man and one woman in an office where, depending on one's point of view, an act of sexual harassment does or does not occur. In Act II, the antagonists, a middle-aged university professor and an undergraduate student, return to the scene of the alleged crime to try to settle their case without benefit of counsel, surrogates or, at times, common sense.
- The result? During the pause for breath that separates the two scenes of Mr. Mamet's no-holds-barred second act, the audience seemed to be squirming and hyperventilating en masse, so nervous was the laughter and the low rumble of chatter that wafted through the house. In Medicine, hyperventilation (or overbreathing) is the state of Breathing faster and/or deeper than necessary bringing about lightheadedness and other The ensuing denouement, which raised the drama's stakes still higher, does nothing to alter the impression that "Oleanna" is likely to provoke more arguments than any play this year. [1]
It had its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in 1993, directed by Harold Pinter[3]. Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) David Suchet played John (in a Variety Club Award-winning performance[4]), and Lia Williams played Carol, in a version that used Mamet's original ending from the Cambridge production. David Suchet (pronunced "soo-shay" /ˈsuːʃeɪ/ OBE (born 2 May 1946 is an English Actor, known for his work on British Lia Williams (born 26 November 1964 in England) is an award winning English Actress, notable for many stage film and television appearances As Pinter notes in personal correspondence to Mamet that Pinter also published on his website:
- There can be no tougher or more unflinching play than Oleanna. The original ending is, brilliantly, "the last twist of the knife". She gets up from the floor ("Don't worry about me. I'm alright") and goes straight for the throat. The last line seems to me the perfect summation of the play. It's dramatic ice[3].
Michael Billington, in a review published in The Guardian, endorsed Pinter's choice of ending, saying "by restoring Mamet's original ending, in which the professor is forced to confess his failings, Pinter also brings out the pain and tragedy of the situation"[3]. Michael Keith Billington (born November 16, 1939) is a British Author and arts Critic. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group.
Oleanna was turned into a movie directed by Mamet, starring Macy and Debra Eisenstadt. Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a Feature film. Debra Eisenstadt is an American director writer producer and actress Roger Ebert, whose review of the film[5] is primarily about the off-Broadway production he saw over a year earlier, was "astonished" to report that Oleanna was not a very good film, characterizing it as awkward and lacking in "fire and passion"; this is in contrast to what Ebert wrote about the performance of the play he saw at the Orpheum:
- Experiencing David Mamet's play "Oleanna" on the stage was one of the most stimulating experiences I've had in a theater. Roger Joseph Ebert (iːbɝt born June 18, 1942) is an American film critic and Screenwriter. In two acts, he succeeded in enraging all of the audience - the women with the first act, the men with the second. I recall loud arguments breaking out during the intermission and after the play, as the audience spilled out of an off-Broadway theater all worked up over its portrait of . . . sexual harassment? Or was it self-righteous Political Correctness?[5]
More recently, a 2004 production[6] at the Garrick Theatre in London, featured Aaron Eckhart and Julia Stiles[7] and was directed by Lindsay Posner. Political correctness (adjectivally politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term applied to Language, ideas policies or behavior The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12 1968 is an American film and stage actor Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28 1981 is an American stage and screen actress.
References
- ^ a b c Mamet's New Play Detonates The Fury of Sexual Harassment, an October 26, 1992 review by Frank Rich of The New York Times
- ^ a b c d e f Oleanna debuts at Cambridge Mass., from the website of the David Mamet Society
- ^ a b c Oleanna by David Mamet, The Royal Court Theatre, 24 June 1993, from the official Harold Pinter website
- ^ Suchet: Dark star, a June 2002 BBC article
- ^ a b Ebert's review of the film version of Oleanna, from the Chicago Sun-Times website
- ^ Stiles and Eckhart to Clash In London Oleanna, Opening April 22, a 2004 Playbill article
- ^ Review of Oleanna from The Guardian
See also
External links
- Study Guide for Oleanna from SparkNotes
- History is Written by the Winners, a critical analysis of Oleanna by playwright N.G. McClernan
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