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 | | Oleanna by David Mamet ISBN-10: 9780822213437 ISBN-10: 0-8222-1343-5 ISBN-13: 9780822213437 ISBN-13: 978-0-8222-1343-7 Paperback 1998-01 Dramatists Play Service Inc Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description "An ear for reproducing everyday language has long been David Mamet's hallmark and he has now employed it to skewer the dogmatic, puritannical streak which has become commonplace on and off the campus. With Oleanna he continues an exploration of male-female conflicts begun with Sexual Perversity in Chicago in 1974. Oleanna cogently demonstrates that when free thought and dialogue are imperilled, nobody wins." (Michael Wise, Independent) In Oleanna "John and Carol go to it with hand-to hand combat that amounts to a primal struggle for power. As usual with Mamet, the vehicle for that combat is crackling, highly distilled dialogue unencumbered by literary frills or phony theatrical ones." (Frank Rich, International Herald Tribune) | ||
Reviews | ||
But Then, What Am I Doing Here...? Audience members tend to get caught up in the question of whether John or Carol is the villain of this tightly focused set piece. The circumstance is ambiguous enough to admit of multiple variations. But more important that that is the question: would you pay money to see a production of this play? And if not, why was it written? It's interesting to compare this 1992 play to the movies Mamet was writing and directing at about the same time. In his movies, the characters tended to speak in flat tones, delivering stilted dialog with the ease and spontaneity of fossils on display. Here, however, the characters use vintage Mamet-speak straight out of the plays that made him famous in the 1980s. However, this play lacks the glimmer of his earlier works. It feels like a Mamet-influenced writing student trying to get a handle on writing dialog. The writing is so elliptical and fragmented that it starts to seem like a parody of American Buffalo or Glengarry Glen Ross, only without the irony necessary to sell a persuasive parody. These lines are loose enough to admit of different interpretations from different actors. Some actors coax sterling performances from the lines. But the play gives so few directions, is so devoid of beats, and is so reliant on the vagaries of individual performers, that productions I've seen have had shining moments of genius scattered like raisins in a pudding of mediocrity. The misogyny inherent in most of Mamet is on glaring display here. Carol transitions from stereotypes of drooping wet rag to ball-busting harpy without pause for a genuinely earned emotion between. And while it's easy to see John as a slavering archetype of an oversexed professor, Carol's vengeance is so out of proportion to his actions that we are plainly led to loan our sympathies to John and see Carol as Medea. Because of its obscurity, reviews of this play's debut suggested Mamet was asking whether it's necessary for an audience to know what is going on. I suggest that it is not. But if we don't know, and have little cause to care, there's no reason for us to watch. This play has come to be regarded as a classic, but I'm unsure why. It's just not up to Mamet's accustomed standard. | ||
Skilled dialogue drama which does not overpower This is a fast- paced little drama in hard- hitting colloquial language. Two characters a university teacher and his student are the whole action. It begins with the girl student petitioning for a passing grade, but in time becomes complicated by her charging the teacher with harassment. As their dialogue is going on the teacher is also having to deal with the purchase of a house, and family problems. Both teacher and student feel failures but somehow the common element of their situation does not bring them to sympathetic understanding and conclusion. Obviously this is a look at the new 'politically correct' ethic which has infested much of campus discourse and life. I found it an interesting exercise. But it somehow did not move me on a very deep level. | ||
Oleanna - Mean and Frustrating "Oleanna" was a very, very frustrating read for me. First of all, a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that it is meant to be seen and heard, not read. Nonetheless, I'm convinced that a lot of the frustration is intentional. Everything the characters say is mixed up, incompleted, and confusing. The author, or playwright, Mamet, seems to have a very condescending opinion, almost disgust, for the English language. The confusion and misunderstanding is written in a way that makes our language appear almost pointless. I can't help but thinking to myself that anything can be put in a bad light, and shown to be a source of evil and violence, but why make a point of it (at least when its fundamentally unchangeable, like our basic language)? From my reading, I took the conclusion of the story to be something like "Language is futile, and fails us when we need it most." Of all the things I've read in my college literature course, "Oleanna" has been the only thing to leave a distinctly sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps I'm missing the beauty of the writing, or the composition, or something... but overall this seemed to be a very mean spirited and ultimately pointless read. | ||
Mainzerjacob got it right! Although this play has often been characterized as a critique of "political correctness" gone insane, coming as it does on the heels of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, the earlier reviewer got it right. Read the epigraph! This is a play that rewards multiple readings and is worthy of a place in the curriculum of a college English class. One thing is certain: it will inspire class discussion! | ||
Oleanna Rocks! I loved this book/play too. We were required to read it for my Comp 2 class, but I was glad we were. It is very easy reading and DOES make one wonder what side they are actually on. The point we focused on most was that even if the teacher wasn't what they were making him out to be that he eventually became that person because that's what everyone believed him to be. Kind of like the theory if you tell a kid he's bad, even if he isn't he'll eventually become what you make him out to be because there's no point in being any different if people won't/don't accept that you're not who they make you out to be. I liked it so much I even borrowed the video from the library. William H. Macey was awesome playing the part of the teacher, you could just feel the tension between the two characters.If you buy this book and like it I suggest you buy the video too if you can, it's worth the money. | ||