Customer Reviews

Oleanna: A Play

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David Mamet's Oleanna was polarizing when it premiered on Broadway--audiences tended to sympathize with one character and hate the other.

The experience of reading Oleanna rather than seeing it is a rewarding one. The play features two characters: John, a professor up for tenure, and Carol, his student. Each of these characters is in the midst of their own problems when we meet them in the first act--John is arguing with his wife and in the midst of buying a new house (as a celebration of his impending tenure), and Carol is desperately trying not to fail John's class. When the show opens, Carol has come to John to ask him not to fail her--unfortunately, John is on and off the phone with his realtor and his wife and barely pays attention to Carol. This is the setup from which the rest of the play unravels.

Ultimately, Carol accuses John of sexual harassment--and, although it is easy to say that John never propositions Carol, the reader can see where Carol might have gotten that idea. John, in his haste to leave, says and does things that in retrospect (the second act) seem like mistakes.

Each is a full and fascinating character--John stands on the brink of losing everything that has ever mattered to him, and Carol becomes an ardent feminist activist in the third act. To say more would be a spoiler.

This play is a fascinating character study, examining academia, language, and the startling effect of bad communication. A brilliant and biting play.

Known most for his unique drama "Glengarry Glen Ross," David Mamet has written another masterpiece of a play. "Oleanna" is an unforgettable play that will leave you unsure of who's side you're on until the last remaining moments that will stay with you for a long time.

The story is very simple, or it starts out simple. It all starts as an innocent meeting between a school teacher and his female student. He knows there's been problems with her doing well in the class, so he offers to help. Then before you know it, everything goes to hell and shortly there are accusations of sexism, abuse of power, and sexual harassment. This is play that will mess with your head, leaving you unsure of who is in the right, if any of them are.

I was hooked from the very first page. As soon as I started, I couldn't put it down, and I had no idea of where it was heading. What's great is that it reads very quickly. It's short but accomplishes what it's trying to do. Once again Mamet has a talent of capturing human behavior and reflecting it back through his writing. He can take the simplest conflict and magnify it a hundred times. And once again he is able to catch us off guard when it counts the most.

"Oleanna" is a must-read for anyone who enjoys reading plays, or just reading in general. Like I said, it's very short so chances are that as soon as you start it you'll be able to finish it in no time. You'll be sad when it's over so quickly, but will be happy to re-read it again and again. A terrific masterpiece that is beautifully written and structured on every front, David Mamet's "Oleanna" is a breathtaking read.

I have seen three separate productions of David Mamet's controversial two-hander "Oleanna", and the audience has been driven into polarized frenzy each time. Mamet correctly assumes that the engines that drive contemporary society are envy and greed, and his corrosive attack on the verbal manipulations of political correctness is razor-sharp. Mamet's use of language is extraordinary and in this play -- for a change -- the characters are educated, white-collar academics, not filthy-mouthed lowlifes. Obscenity, however, takes many forms. Do yourself a favour: when you take this book home, READ IT ALOUD with someone else. You will discover that "Oleanna" is a passionate, provocative, and powerful piece of theatre.

I am not sure if David Mamet wrote "Oleana" in response to Anita Hill's accusations against Clarence Thomas, but, his insightful portrayal of how some feminist activists sometimes misuses men as a means to accomplish their agenda would be humorous were it not truly sad. Mamet critiques several relationships in this play including that of humans to humans. In the final analysis of the sexual harassment situation demonstrated in the play, Mamet illustrates how cruel humans can be to one another. Can there really be interest in and cordiality between men and women, student and professor? Does there alwyas have to be or assumed to be some sexual tension or inuendo going on? Or has the declining morals in society dictated that in age of uncertainity and suspicion, people must distance themselves from one another for fear that words, gestures, and intensions can be totally miscontrued and taken out context?

Oleanna was the first David Mamet play I read, and I was very impressed. Oleanna is fast, harsh, and a real jolt. The two characters in the play are a teacher and a student, both with weaknesses and issues. No side is innocent in this play, and that adds to the realism. Neither character is a protagonist, and sections where you think one may be correct are just illusions. Oleanna harshly but craftly shows the faults of the educational system. However, I think this book demonstrates an exchange of power between teacher and student. Without giving the plot away, this power struggle shifts radically in the story and ends with amazing results. I highly recommend this book to anyone and I think it is a great topic for debate!

It is an unfortunate truth: political correctness-sometimes but not always-overrides education. For a while, it has been extremely detrimental-inside as well as outside of the academic community-a fact Mamet has obviously noticed. For some people, whether they be students, educators or the general citizenary, it has become a tool to elevate their social and political standing, while for others, it has become a loaded weapon in order to inflict character assassination and injure deep-seated Constitutional rights, whether consciously or unconsciously. Something that is meant to refine an education-if it is not done to a ridiculously abnormal degree-can enhance the emotional senses, the perception (although sensing is a more inborn ability). However, when the general essence of civility becomes radically altered due to an excessive fusion with social politicking, it ceases to be civility. Rather, it becomes something else entirely. And when that happens, that is when the absurdity of overindulgent social commentary arises. A war of genuine verses pseudo intellectualism erupts, clashes, leaving in its wake bitterness, hubristic and sympathetic condescension and a widened communication gap. David Mamet presents to his readers and audience the pros and cons of political correctness: the necessity and lunacy of it. Oleanna is a play with no middle ground; it is black or white, cut and dry. Period. It is the responsibility of the readers and audience to create the middle ground, to alleviate the extremity of the bipolar divisiveness. It is the audience and readers who must apply what they have just seen or read to the daily grind of life. The people are the workers, the ones who must create the compromises so that atmospheres-everywhere-do not resemble that of the Salem witch trials. Militant political correctnes, as presented in the latter half of Oleanna is authoritarian, oppressive and very palpably harmful. (Read pages 78-79.) Those excerpts, though admittedly extreme, are only a half of a wider issue that Mamet is trying to present. The other half is represented on pages 71 and 74. The extremes of both characters are quite stark-powerful in their own right-because the evolving situations have given them that. The Carol character doesn't simply want understanding as a person and student. She wants understanding of the academic material, literally, not the subtle partisan undertones that he (the professorial character of John) is blending into his teachings and pawning off as academic truth. In doing that, he ceases to be an educator, but altogether evolves into something entirely different: a fraud with unlimited power. When that evolution occurs, it needs to be corrected. In Oleanna, both characters need to be corrected. Ultimately, I believe they are. Oleanna is a great work of drama: honed, straightforward and sincere. Both halves of the same circle are equally discussed and probed.

When I finished reading this I was in shock. This is not an uplifting account of men and women working successfully together. No, this is an angry, rapid two hander about a forty someting professor (John) and a twenty year old female student of his (Carol).
What comes about is unclear intentions, challenges to social paradigms of teach/student relations, failed attempts at understanding, insane real estate battles, condescention, feminine warrior martyrdom, overt or covert personal strikes, intellectual agrandizement, life altering accusations, political struggle and humiliations. All before an ultimate destruction.
Sound ridiculous? In a way it is. It is also believeable and scary.
Definitely a good piece for discussion between men and women. A quick read too.

I do not think there has been a play in the past twenty years that has inspired more arguments than David Mamet's "Oleanna". Mamet has never been angrier, sharper, or more inspired. More than that, however, Mamet has added a new aspect to this work: ambiguity.

The play revolves around two characters. The first, John, is a college professor. He sits behind the desk in his office, hiding behind a large vocabulary and a cocky disposition. Enter Carol, an attractive student who is having trouble understanding John's concepts in his class. John only half-listens to her problems. He spends most of the time listening to himself talk and distracting himself with complications from buying a new house.

Act One is initially hard to follow, and seems to go nowhere. However, when Act Two rolls along, the purpose is sealed. It turns out that certain words and one key gesture were misinterpreted, and John's career is on the line. As the play progresses, it turns out that Carol has more than a few tricks up her sleeve.

The play is insanely intriguing because of the motivations behind the two characters. We know people like this in our life, and to see both of them on their last leg, relying on whatever resources they have to get on top, is fascinating.

The most incredible aspect of this play, however, is the aforementioned abiguity. Although certain productions may lean toward one character or the other, the script itself presents two very flawed characters, making the hero/villain line rather blurry. Men tend to side toward John, while women find Carol the victim, but the play takes no sides.

Years from now, when Mamet has passed, and his work remains, I believe this will sit on the shelf with his best works. It is a quick, inexpensive read, and one of the best American plays in years.

I'm not an ardent Mamet fan. Indeed, I saw 'Glengarry Glen Ross' the movie, and read the play, and was still unconvinced. sure, the guy has a talent for making it seem real, but what happens when the plotline is just so .. dull .. that you can't sit through it?

That is not the case in "Oleanna". I bought this book because I'd not had a lot of experience with Mamet, and the premise of the play rather startled my curiosity. I sat down and read the first act and sighed, thinking I'd wasted my money. The second act I started sitting up. By the end of the third, I'd began saying "Oh my god." to myself, and had to read the last few paragraphs over again, feeling like I'd missed something. Didn't find it, so read back a little more.

I had to completely re-read this before I was completely amazed and enthralled, and consequently ordered "The Cryptogram," by Mamet. Oleanna examines the very fibre of social interaction, tears it apart, and leaves a single nerve vibrating tremulously in the air, raw and scathed to the very filaments. It's absolutely amazing. I have not seen the movie, but it stars William H. Macy, one of my favourite actors, and am greatly looking forward to renting it!

It begins innocently: a distracted male professor meets with a female student to discuss her grade. But a series of verbal missteps sends both characters into a conflict neither has asked for. Or have they? Mamet creates a twisting performance where predator and prey shift in this brilliant explosion of all our assumptions regarding sexual politics and the risks of communication. This is a thriller that will both amaze and trouble you