Oleanna (play)
Oleanna is a 1992 two-character play by David Mamet, about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students. The play's title, taken from a folk song, refers to a 19th-century escapist vision of utopia. Mamet adapted his play into a 1994 film of the same name.
Plot summary
Act I
Carol, a college student, is in the office of her professor, John. She expresses frustration that she does not understand the material in his class, despite having read the assigned books and attending his lectures. Of particular concern is a book written by John himself, wherein he questions the modern insistence that everyone participate in higher education, referring to it as "systematic hazing". While talking with Carol, John is often interrupted by the phone ringing. He is about to be granted tenure along with a handsome raise. Anticipating this, John is about to close on a new house, but his wife repeatedly calls with last-minute issues, demanding that he meet her at the home as soon as possible.After initially appearing insensitive, John eventually decides to help Carol, telling her that he "likes her" and that he also felt similar frustrations as a student. He takes the blame for her not understanding what he is talking about and agrees to give her an "A" if she returns to his office several more times to discuss the material. At one heated point in the discussion, he goes to put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she violently shakes it off. Finally, Carol has warmed to John and is on the verge of divulging a secret when the phone rings again and John's wife tells him that the realtor problems were all a scheme to get him back to the house for a surprise reception in his honor. He departs for home immediately.
Act II
Carol is back in John's office, but more poised than before. His tenure is threatened because Carol has filed a formal complaint with the committee, accusing him of sexual harassment. She has documented daily occurrences of sexist remarks by John toward his students and describes his offer of giving her an "A" if she agrees to meet with him privately in his office. John hopes to resolve the matter privately with Carol so that the complaint may be withdrawn from the tenure committee, saying he does not understand how his actions could have offended her and attempting to convince her that he was only trying to help her without any ulterior motive. Carol decides it is best that she leave, but John stands in front of the door and grabs hold of her. Carol screams for help.Act III
John has been denied tenure and suspended, with a possible dismissal, and is packing up his office. He has not been home to see his wife and family, staying at a hotel for two days trying to work out in his head what has happened. He has asked Carol to speak to him once more and she has obliged. Carol is even more forceful in naming her instructor's flaws, finding it hypocritical that a college professor could question the very system that offers him employment and gives him an academic platform to expound his views. She also refers to "her group", on whose behalf she speaks and from whom she seems to be getting advice and support as she files her complaints.In passing, John mentions that he has not been home recently. Carol reveals that if he had, he would have learned that her charges against him now amount to attempted rape. Carol offers to drop her charges if John would agree to her group's list of books to be removed from the university, which includes his own. John refuses, angrily telling her to leave his office as his phone rings again. It is his wife, whom he affectionately calls "baby". Carol tells him not to refer to his wife that way. This causes John to finally snap completely and he savagely beats her, screaming obscenities and holding a chair above her head as she cowers on the floor. As John calms down, realizing what he's just done, he says, "... well..." The play ends with Carol saying, "Yes...that's right."
Variations on the ending
There have been several endings produced for the end of Act III. In the original Cambridge production in May 1992, after John beats Carol, she stands and a defeated John reads a confessional statement that Carol has prepared. In the Fall 1992 production in New York, the ending is shortened, and after the beating, John ambiguously says "Well...", and Carol responds "Yes. That's right". In the 1993 London production directed by Pinter, the director restored the longer Cambridge ending. The 1994 movie adaptation directed by Mamet uses the briefer ending, but John says "Oh my God" before Carol replies the same "Yes. That's right".Cast and characters
- John - a pompous, self-absorbed middle-aged professor
- Carol - an insecure twenty-something college student
Themes
The principal themes of the play have centered on the overall comparison to the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas debate during the Supreme Court hearing of the future Justice, and the amount of veracity which could be associated with the male side of the debate and the amount of veracity to associate with the female side. In the audio commentary for the Criterion DVD edition of another Mamet film, Homicide, Mamet stated that the theme of group affiliation was central to his portrayal of Carol when she announces her joining the activist group on campus.Original productions
The play premiered in May 1992 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the first production of Mamet's new Back Bay Theater Company. The premiere featured William H. Macy as John, a "smug, pompous, insufferable man whose power over academic lives he unconsciously abuses". Rebecca Pidgeon played the female lead, Carol, described by one critic as "Mamet's most fully realized female character...a mousy, confused cipher" whose failure to comprehend concepts and precepts presented in John's class motivated her appeal for personal instruction.In October, a year after the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas hearings which "crystallized and concretized" Mamet's dramatization, it appeared off-Broadway at New York City's Orpheum Theatre, with Macy and Pidgeon reprising their roles. The production included a rewritten third scene. Critic Frank Rich provides a summary of the play in his review of the off-Broadway production:
Oleanna London premiere was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1993, directed by Harold Pinter. David Suchet played John, and Lia Williams played Carol, in a version that used Mamet's original ending from the Cambridge production. As Pinter notes in personal correspondence to Mamet that Pinter also published on his website:
Michael Billington's review 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."