Oleanna

Synopsis

When a college Professor agrees to meet a struggling student behind closed doors, their conversation yields only mutual misunderstanding...and an unexpected charge. As their antipathy turns ugly, it destroys lives, derails careers and ultimately leads to a cataclysmic event that no one could have expected. The play was presented at the Royal Court in 1993 with David Suchet and Lia Williams, and directed by Harold Pinter.

Our Review:

Miranda Fay Thomas - 9 November 2010

At the start of each act, professor and student pace around the edge of an office, like boxers dancing around a ring, preparing to pull their intellectual punches. Juliet Forster’s production of Oleanna transports the action of David Mamet’s play to a British university as opposed to the original American setting, but the agenda of gender is palpable on any continent. Senior academic John (Kevin McGowan) claims to adore teaching and the act of performance it brings (‘That’s my job – to provoke you’). Yet Carol, his inexperienced student (Claire Louise Cordwell), soon begins to turn his own strength against him.

Minutely dissecting the relationship between student and teacher, Cordwell and McGowan guide us through this inspection of language with excellent precision. They rigorously question the apparent perspicacity of facts, revealing how so-called truth becomes a veil when motive comes into play. To some, McGowanR...

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