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A Flawless Intepretation of a Flawed Play: Mark Taper's 'Oleanna'
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Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Photo by Craig Schwartz.
David Mamet's "Oleanna" is a problem play if there ever was one. Short, it packs a lot of uncomfortable material tightly with a resolution that leaves the audience unsatisfied, even angry. It requires star power to draw people in and Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles are names that will bring people. Under the direction of Doug Hughes, the play doesn't disappoint and it will, as I am sure it was meant to do, raise anxieties.
First there is the content. Older man, John (Bill Pullman), a professor who is smug and wants to be a maverick in the ivory tower while hoping to take advantage of all the material objects that tenure can bring: a new house, private school for his children. Then there is Carol (Julia Stiles). When we meet her, she is lost. She doesn't understand his book, the required text for the course she is failing. She feels stupid. She feels he is saying she is stupid. He attempts to comfort her. And in the first act, he breaks down and says he will start the class over, teach her in his office, alone, breaking the rules of the university. We think him a nice man.
Yet by the second act, Carol is back. She is better dressed and so is he. She has filed a complaint against him to the tenure committee alleging sexual harassment. Things go from bad to worse. When she tries to leave, he attempts to restrain her.
By act three, that attempt has become an attempt at rape and John finally does do something physically inappropriate.
Pullman brings his good guy image with him. As John he is a man who wants to succeed. He is arrogant. He runs his hands through his hair. He's a bit awkward with Carol. We never get the suggestion that he is making sexual advances. This is clearly all in Carol's mind. Stiles' Carol is crucial to our belief and Stiles' has the chameleon quality--she's the same person revealing different facets in each act. Wholly sympathetic if not pathetic in the first act, she is loathsome by the end and we see that it is John and not Carol who is the stupid one.
Secondly, the content and the context of this play are troubling, something I discuss elsewhere. Sexual harassment is still a problem on college campuses. To some extent this play seems to trivialize the problem. The third problem, is that people tend to wonder just who is Oleanna.
You might have known some people like Pullman's pompous John, but you probably won't have seen any professor with such a spacious office (set design by Neil Patel). The transitions are signaled by the electronic raising and lowering of the shutters which can be entertaining. Beyond the shutters we see red brick buildings that seem very East Coast and traditional. The very institutional red couch is a nice touch. John doesn't have so much as a desk, but a table (without drawers).
I've often said that all teaching associates and assistants should see this play. Under Hughes, there is no suggestion of impropriety on the part of John until the end. And this increases the anxiety and even queasiness amongst both men and women in the audience. Will it make men think twice? Perhaps, but will it also make people more suspicious of any accusation of sexual harassment? Mamet has given people something to talk about, and this is reason enough to see this play. This revival has good production values and an exceptional cast. Even over a decade since this play made its debut in 1992, we unfortunately have a lot to talk about.
"Oleanna" continues until July 12 at the Mark Taper Forum. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2:30 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. No 1 p.m. performance on Sunday, June 7. $20-$65.
For an article on "Oleanna" and the issue of sexual harassment, see my article on the flaws of this play. For an explanation on the title, see my article about Pete Seeger and David Mamet.
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