Editor's note: this review is www.mountainx.com, the Mountian Xpress website. You can read original posting at http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2007/play_review_oleanna_at_nc_stage
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Play Review: Oleanna at NC Stage
—Alli Marshall, A&E reporter
by Alli Marshall on 03/22/2007
It’s telling that title of this two-person David Mamet play is completely obscure. It’s taken from a 19th century folk song that references the ideal of utopian societies. Got that?
The play, performed by immediate theatre project (itp) at NC Stage Company, is not an easy one to watch—though certainly not due to the dramatic talents of stars Katie Fuller and Peter Tamm. The show revolves around the interactions between a pompous, self-absorbed (though likely harmless) university professor and his disturbed female student in jeopardy of failing a course. Following these characters over three acts, Oleanna deconstructs the source and use of power—both real and imagined—between these two people.
Interestingly, Mamet wrote the play 15 years ago (a year after the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, notes Wikipedia.org). My initial reaction as a viewer, with no previous knowledge of the show, was that seeing an older man paired with a college-aged woman screamed “taboo,” especially with the collegiate setting thrown in to the mix. Is it just that recent events involving alleged teacher abuses of students makes any teacher-student interaction suspect? Has too much political correctness poisoned our collective perception? These are some of the questions around which Oleanna dances.
ITP’s staging of the play has the two characters both facing the audience, the stage split by white electrical tape. Professor John sits behind his desk regarding two chalk-drawn squares representing two chairs, while student Carol sits in one of the chairs facing a large chalked rectangle representing John’s desk. They both deliver their lines in halting, awkward, oft-interrupted phrasing that builds tension and confusion. The trick is, they interact with each other without actually looking at each other, the entire time addressing their speech to the audience. It’s a clever approach that doesn’t fully reveal its effectiveness until the first eruptive moment of physical contact.
As far as the characters go, Tamm offers up a deliberately contrived intellectual, bolstered by self-importance and pretension. “I asked myself if I engaged in heterodoxy,” he says at one point. And, “You find me pedantic.” He seems to be teaching a course based on his own life experience and self-examination.
Fuller, meanwhile, plays Carol as a creepier version of Ally Sheedy’s “Alison the Basketcase” in The Breakfast Club. Think class misfit-meets-recently converted femi-nazi with the lingo to boot. Words like “hypocrisy,” “elitism” and “exploitive” pepper her speech. As the scenes progress, Carol’s appearance shifts from disheveled and dumpy to pulled together and militant while John evolves from button-downed to unglued. It’s worth noting that William H. Macy starred in the debut.
As I said, Oleanna isn’t a fun show, and it doesn’t offer much in the way of answers. In fact, I found myself rushing from the theater with the rest of the audience after the final terse moments, no more clear on the point than when the play began. That said, it’s completely worth seeing—especially for theater-goers who like their drama on the dark side. The play moves briskly along without a single dull moment and the outcome—obtuse as it may be—will have viewers questioning many commonly held conceptions.
Oleanna runs through Sunday, Apr. 1, Wednesday-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 Wednesdays and Sundays, $15 other nights. 350-9090.
3 comments:
I agree with the reviewer for the most part. Some friends and I went to the 3/24 performance of Oleanna. We weren't quite sure what to think of the ending and what Mamet was trying to say. That higher education has ran its course in society?
Also, I thought the "interrupting" phrasing between the two actors could use some additional work. It is too halting and staccato. I think it could have flowed a little better as the actors exchanged their lines.
However, the play is definitely interesting as whole. Congratulations to ITP and the production staff and actors.
editor's note: this is of course an unauthorized reproduction of an A C-T review, which you can also find at http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770329057
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Demanding 2-character drama blends innovative script with minimalist techniques
by Jim Cavener, take 5 correspondent
published March 30, 2007 12:15 am
Theater can be entertaining or disturbing, profound, thoughtful or provocative. David Mamet’s “Oleanna,” being staged by the immediate theater project at N.C. Stage Co., is not entertainment in the light or frothy sense. This is a challenging script, with only two characters.
The building tension and explosive encounter at the denouement leaves the audience weak and exhausted if they’ve allowed themselves to get involved and identify with either role.
“Oleanna” is devastating in its effect. The skill of both actors is a tribute to director Hans Meyer’s wise casting and his incisive innovation with this already erudite content. His staging is brilliant in its simple concept — the two actors virtually never face or see each other.
The bright, white line down the center of the stage symbolizes Carol’s (Katie Fuller) and John’s (Peter Tamm) inability to hear, understand or acknowledge each other, which brings about the drama.
John is a professor on the edge of tenure, and much rests on his getting it. Carol is a student who needs her professor’s help to get the basics of his course. Fuller, an undergrad at UNC Asheville, is able to hold her own with the much more experienced Tamm.
It is easy to assume, early, that the allegations one character makes of the other are valid. But, as time goes on, it appears that each is at once a hero, a villain and a victim. The material is masterful and stimulating. The presentation is so innovative, yet minimalist in set and design, that the overall production is riveting.
The minimalist staging (a black desk, a black phone, three black chairs, three complimentary furniture outlines on the front stage floor) is appropriate. The lighting is unnoticed, thus effective. The sound design comes to a climax with a powerful drum arpeggio.
The characters change in time and the effective clothing and costuming (by company co-founder Lauren Fortuna) accentuate the shifts in power and position. Two people, each subsumed within their own worlds and separated by a bright, white line.
Jim Cavener reviews theater for Take5.
E-mail him at JimCavener@aol.com.
I liked the show. I didn't find it to be quite as profound or "hard to watch" as other people did. Maybe it was because I couldn't really identify with either character. Never the less it is a well written story, and the performances were solid. It was the first time I'd ever seen the show so I think for the most part the staging worked, although I don't have any previous reference for it. It certainly made the actors jobs tougher. I felt they both managed to stay in character and in the moment for the entire time. I felt the staging made the physical moments a bit awkward; transitioning from looking into space to looking at each other was a bit jarring, but it really helped to highlight those moments.
I also like the minimal staging that itp always uses. It really helps the audience focus on the words and story rather than the technical elements.
I also liked the characters progression over the course of the play. The actors made each "stage" different, but connected. I do feel that Katie Fuller made the her character a bit overly gawky at first. To me it seemed a lot more presentational than natural, whereas Peter Tamm's performance always felt very naturalistic.
While in my opinion, this was not my favorite, or most powerful, itp production I've seen, that would be All My Sons, it was on it's own a impressive production.
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