Review: "Oleanna" At The Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles

It should be said, not for commentary's sake but as an apt introduction, that just attempting to make a start on this blog has been a challenge in and of itself.

Having just typed but not yet published my previous post ("Day 10: From Johnny To Julia") about the day's events surrounding seeing "Oleanna", I was totally pumped to make an immediate start on reviewing the play itself.

I couldn't find anywhere to start.

I scanned the internet for amateur reviews that would remind me of the experience in the hopes of being inspired with a worthy opening to my review that would provoke an ongoing flow of editorial to do the play justice. Nope, that just got me more stuck. Every review I read seemed to not even touch on the greatness of the performance, never mind the brilliance of the plot.

I then tried the opposite avenue and read an array of proper critic reviews. This just frustrated me more because critics have their superior heads so far up their tight arses that nothing they had to say even remotely shed light on the wonder. All their reviews offered was a collection of verbal vomit made up of too many adjectives, empty philosophy, vague cynicism and an absence of any real original opinion in an apparent effort to display their own genius.

What these two attempts at inspiration did spawn was a passion to write a genuine from-the-heart commentary of a terrific piece of theatre with a mindblowingly provoking plot expertly and breathtakingly performed by two truly talented actors.

First but not obviously foremost, the set design and lighting was masterful. The Mark Taper Forum isn't exactly a big or fancy space. It's your typical and simple small theatre, nice but basic. The use of venetian blinds adjusted for each new scene backed by mood lighting was subtle but skilled.

Bill Pullman takes on the role of John, a professor anxiously waiting for the university to sign off on his tenure. He’s buying a house with his wife, who keeps phoning him with updates during his fraught meeting with Carol, a struggling student with a pressure-cooker temperament, played by Julia Stiles.



Most people would know Julia, "Ten Things I Hate About You", "Save The Last Dance", "The Prince & Me", the "Bourne" trilogy and a cascade of other popular movies credit her with widespread fame. Bill Pullman, for those that don't know, would be best known for smaller parts in "A League Of Their Own" and "Sleepless In Seattle" followed by bigger parts in "Independence Day" as the President, "Brokedown Palace" and "Titan A.E.".

Julia is actually reprising the role of Carol, having already starred in "Oleanna" on West End back in 2004.

Basic synopsis: "Oleanna" is a two character play about the power struggle between a college professor and one of his female students who accuses him of sexual harassment and, by doing so, ruins his entire career in one fell swoop. Whether or not the accusation is right or wrong is essentially the central theme of the story and is, of course, a matter of opinion.

I'll be presumptuous and speak on behalf of [what I believe to be] the sane majority and say that you initially feel the accusation is wrongful and that Carol is an evil little witch.

As the story presses on your mind involuntarily begins to change and you find yourself having slightly harder feelings towards the professor without necessarily growing in affection or sympathy for the malicious student.

By the conclusion of the play you're so gobsmacked by the events that take place that you can't help but pity Carol somewhat and find disgust in John's actions. At the same time his actions seem deserved and inevitable. The complete sprectrum and revolution of feelings that you experience throughout the show and especially at its closing is like nothing I could have anticipated or imagined. I was so blown away and provoked that I wanted to immediately either study philosophy and/or psychology or take up acting.



I was so jazzed and intrigued by not only the performance but the content discussed by the fictional characters that I had trouble sleeping that night.

For example, a central topic of conversation between the two characters as both a sidebar and an eventual relevant issue is "Higher Education is Hazing". While I would generally have felt, without ever having given it much thought, that this is an overzealous, cynical take on a subject not requiring much debate, the play really got me considering the ideas put forward by both the professor and his student.

* Hazing - for those that don't watch too much American entertainment and/or abuse popular American lanugage and/or are spending the better part of the year in the USA, the definition of hazing is: a ritualistic test and a task involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a gang, club, military organization or other group (i.e. frequently used in the context of college fraternities and sororities and their initiations for joining).

"Oleanna" is often referred to as Mamet's "sexual harassment play" which is really an unfair and shallow label. Sure, there are allegations of sexual harrassment made within the play, but there are allegations of much more than that made within the play too. One valid contribution that the stuffy pro critics contributed was, in so many words, that the work is essentially dissecting how easily the American dream can be twisted into a personal nightmare.

In light of the fact that "Oleanna" was written on the heels of the Clarence Thomas Senate hearings regarding allegations made by Anita Hill, I think Mamet did an absolute killer job of unabashedly reflecting how damaging misplaced passion can be.

In a brief first act, John and Carol have an impromptu meeting in John's office. John is on the receiving end of a litany of phone calls from his wife about the new home he is attempting to close Escrow on. This constantly interrupts and disrupts the meeting and one can see Carol becomes increasingly frustrated as their discussion about her inability to understand his lectures rolls on. John, however, sees something familiar in Carol and one gets the impression that he feels, for the first time in many years, that he might actually be able to make a difference in the life of a student. He challenges her to think, to bust pre-conceived ideas and comforts her when it all becomes too much for her to bear.

The result of which is a second act that introduces Carol in a whole new light. The above-mentioned accusations have now taken place, plus reviews of the professor by the college's tenure board and the almost-loss of his beloved new house. Both John's cell phone and office line continue to hinder fluent conversation between the two as he tries in vain to get the now bold and confident Carol to see reason... to no avail.

The next several scenes all follow the same downward spiral, where Carol continues to evolve from her original fragmented self into a verbose monster of a feminist and John begins to visibly fall apart at the seams.

Pullman's John is full of uncertainty, about himself and others. He has a difficult time standing up to his wife and realtor in their unending phone calls. His halting speech and baffled nature end up being no match for Carol's streaming accusations, despite her own limited vocabulary. On the contrary, John is not the entitled elitist he is accused of being by Carol and her nefarious "group." He is someone who struggled to get where he his, is uncertain he even deserves it now and, despite statements to the contrary, feels it could all be wiped away at any moment.

And then it is.

He is a character to be pitied, even as he is difficult to identify with. I have never tried to picture Bill Pullman as a stage actor, but I was impressed with this interpretation of John and the neurotic vulnerability he wrapped the character up in.

Julia Stiles, while always having always been a favourite of mine, has often bugged me as a result of habitually delivering lines in a way that says "I'm so intelligent that I will only speak in monotone, but I will occasionally colour my performance with a cringe-worthy shriek to really make a point". And thus was frequently the case during the first act and some of the second act of her performance. Not that I'm necessarily criticising.



She really only seemed to break out of this pattern and assume a powerful character about midway through the second act, when the scene between Carol and John became quite heated and minor violence began to ensue. But when she got there it was something to behold and thoroughly worth waiting for.

Possibly one of the greatest theatrical moments I have had the privilege of witnessing came early in the final Act in the form of five words perfectly executed by Julia as the now Goliath figure of Carol:

After a scene where John attempts to restrain Carol to prevent her exiting the room, the two are again in another scene of tug-o-war in trying to make the other see their side of the sexual harassment allegations when John receives yet another phone call. It is clearly evident that John has received some alarmingly bad news. In complete shock and horror John puts down the phone and splutters something along the lines of "What... how... when... how could you? The police?"

Carol responds with "I thought you knew..." followed by a long and dramatic pause and "... you tried to rape me".

The reaction of the audience was visceral. My audible gasp was one among dozens, not to mention several verbal outcries followed by widespread whispering and murmuring. It was like being in a courtroom where some vital and damning evidence has just been revealed by a star witness. I think I actually had butterflies.

Rock on, Julia.

The final showdown between Carol and John is so shattering that it left the audience in stunned silence, even Julia seemed to have trouble shaking it off after the curtain call. I had actually wondered while reading the programme prior to the show why they needed a choreographer. I thought it was just something new and enlightening I was learning, that not just regular stage direction was necessary at such a professional level, but also expert choreography.

Nope, the closing scene made it infinitely clear why the production required a choreographer.

By this time John is so frazzled and messed up that his physical appearance has even deteriorated. His frustration is now entirely unhidden and his character unsympathetic and irrational. All this culminates in a literal and actual physical fight scene that ends with some colourful language, an actual attempt at rape and Julia thrown over furniture into a fetal position on the floor. One thing I wasn't quite prepared for was the use of the "unspeakable" swear word. As if the dialogue, the plot and the violence wasn't shocking enough, the c-word can usually make my heart skip a beat on a regular day!

The audience is worked up into a state of such righteous indignation that John's final outburst of physical violence is made to seem, if not justifiable, well, then, somehow understandable. But his exhilaration is brief, by getting John to beat her up, Carol has won by losing (the ultimate in female passive-aggressiveness): she has gotten him to seal his own doom. "Yes, that's right," are her - and the play's - final words.