July 18 - 27 2002
Directed by Tim Taylor
In the no-man's land between misunderstanding and sexual harassment, we watch with impotent dread as the relationship between professor and student entirely breaks down, as their mutual respect evaporates and an unbridgeable divide opens which can only destroy one or both of them. This is the gender war, and more than that. It's the generation gap, and more than that. It's the class struggle, and more than that.
During it's New York run, audiences actually came to blows as they left the theatre, so powerful is David Mamet's writing. Time since has changed nothing.
David Mamet’s Oleanna is a thought-provoking play that looks at the issue of sexual harassment on-campus in a radical light. On stage are two characters. An under-grad student, waiting, seated in front of her professor, whose class she has flunked, to discuss her grades. He is on the phone, discussing the impending purchase of his house… And he starts addressing the student. She starts fumbling for words… starts taking notes… the exorcism begins! Before the play is halfway through, the Professor is brought before Tenure Committee for sexual harassment… Who is right, who is wrong? In the process, it questions the basic fabric of the entire society.
Oleanna is a play subtitled as: Which ever side you take, you are wrong
It seems that 'Oleanna' is in fact 'Oleana'. Ole Bull (1810-1880) was a Norwegian virtuoso violinist who took his music all over the world until, finding himself in Pennsylvania, he fell in love with the place.
In 1852 he bought a vast tract of land and tried to set up an idealistic community, which he called 'Oleana', where fellow Norwegians could live peacefully and escape the tyrannies of their homeland. In fact, the land he had bought was completely unsuitable for farming and the venture failed. He, and many other settlers who had joined him, lost a great deal of money and most of them, Ole Bull included, returned to Norway. The site of his venture is now the Ole Bull National Park.
An 'oleana' is thus used to refer to the hopeless pursuit of an idealistic, even utopian, dream where all things are naively held to be possible.
Cast| John, a university professor | Peter Woodward |
| Carol, a student | Sam Emery |
| Stage Management | Richard Le-Moingan |
| Set Design | Tim Taylor |
| Lighting Design | Damon Wakelin |
| Lighting Operator | Robin Hall |
Act 1: John's office
--- Twenty minute interval ---
Act 2: the same, about three weeks later
Act 3: the same, about four days later
David Mamet is American: his plays were written in America, most of them were first performed in America and when they are performed in Britain they are usually set in America and performed with American accents. This production is not, for three reasons.
First, Mamet is deliberately and carefully vague about the setting. It takes place in a university, but we don't know which one; the location is not specified; the course Carol is studying is not mentioned; no indication of their ages is given. Only one of the characters even uses a name; the other is identified - for the purposes of the script only - simply as 'John' . As far as possible, it seems, the characters could be any of us, and the setting could be anywhere. Why, then, locate it any particular country? If the play is relevant to Hampshire in 2002, why set it somewhere in North America in 1992?
Second, when a character speaks with a specific accent, it tells the audience a great deal: the person's origin, background, perhaps even level of education. An accent can 'fill out' a character enormously, or differentiate one from the others. But when that is not the effect you want to achieve, that useful distinction becomes merely an obtrusion, creating an additional barrier between audience and actors.
Finally, if you decide that you will adopt an accent, which one do you choose? Chicago, where Mamet was born and now lives? New England, the location of Mamet's own university and where Oleanna was first performed? New York, where it would have its major run?
There can be huge dangers in this course, and in a Mamet play more than with many other writers, because his dialogue, natural though it sounds, is compellingly precise. Mamet describes it as free verse, and it has an elegant rhythm that passes unnoticed until it is broken.
However, those dangers seem worth risking for the potential benefit of losing the staging as far as it is possible to do so. I hope that non-specific accents in an unremarkable office will make it easier to concentrate on what matters: the dialogue.
This system is not used in Britain, but is common in many (not all) American universities. On first appointment, a professor or lecturer is effectively on casual contract, on approval; that appointment only becomes permanent once 'tenure' has been granted. A request for tenure is made to a panel of senior professors of the university who consider the applicant's standing in their particular field, the status they will bring to the faculty and, significantly, their publication record.
You may apply for tenure at any time you like, after about six or seven years is typical, and if the application is successful, the job security is very high indeed, almost for life. Certainly a professor with tenure cannot be dismissed for professional reasons or for ceasing research or publication. However, if the application is refused, there is no appeal, and the applicant must leave straight away.
