A Play, Yes, A Play

Last week I did something I haven't done in years. I went to a play and it was great. I don't what's been keeping me away from the theater. Apathy. Laziness. I don't know.

Anyway, It was great. I went to see David Mamet's Oleanna. It was fantastic. Just two actors. Mamet's typically tight and naturual dialogue. And to see the play performed in such an intimate setting, there were about 125 seats, was really special.

This play is something of a mindfuck. The two characters are a male college professor and a struggling female student. The opening scene involves the student visitng the prof to explain that she just doesn't understand what's he trying to teach her. The professor is trying to explain it her and help her unserstand. All the while the phone keeps ringing and during the subsequent phone conversations (just as an aside, I think it's a great feat of acting to pretend like you're talking to someone on the phone and this guy made it look easy) we learn that the board is considering granting him tenure and in anticipation of this, the prof is buying a new home with his wife. But the board's decision is anything but foregone and his relationship with his wife is being strained to breaking because the real estate deal is going awry.

In the next scene, you find out that the student, based on their interaction in the first scene, has filed a sexual harrasment suit that has threatened not only his tenure, but his job. There was a certain off color story told by the prof and he did put his arm around her at one point to offer some comfort, but from my perspective, it was all incredibly innocent. And I think that was the point. I don't how succesful he was, but I think Mamet was trying to demonstrate how easily it was for two different people to share an experience an perceive that experience in a commpletely different light.

Without givng away the ending, let me just say that the relationship between the teacher and the student dissolves and the play ends with what I thought at the time was a bizarre twist, but in retrospect seems more like a logical conclusion.