Oleanna: a near-perfect production of a powerful play

Oleanna is a strange name for a challenging, savage, and, thanks to Soulpepper’s present production of it, brilliant two-character play by America’s David Mamet, one of the finest dramatists and screenwriters of the past quarter century. The name, based on an 1850s folk song about some kind of future utopia (as lovers of Pete Seeger’s 1960s hit may recall), is comically ironic: in the war between the sexes, there are no utopias.

The plot seems simple: Carol — played well by Sarah Wilson — is a failing university student who visits her decent (if condescending and sardonic) male professor, fearful of flunking out. She is weepy and insecure (“I sit in class! I take notes! I’m doing what I’m told!”) but the middle-aged prof, performed magnificently by one of this nation’s best actors, Diego Matamoros, is helpful and tries to allay her fears. He is wrapped up with trying to buy a house for his family, based on the expectation that he’ll be granted tenure within weeks (the endless phone call interruptions about this deal are both hilarious and symbolically meaningful, making the telephone a dangerous character in the play).

Naturally—as in all good drama—everything goes wrong: the young student is radicalized by a passionate feminist group, and she makes seemingly outrageous accusations against John’s actions and words (which are, on occasion, gently sexist and therefore damning), and it looks as if Carol will destroy John’s career. The last scene is so horrific—the sharply-angled walls of the expressionistic set, superbly designed by Teresa Przybylski, are a visual metaphor for the world closing and collapsing on them both—that you will never forget it.

Is the play fair to either gender? That’s what you’ll be arguing about all the way home. Is the direction by the superb László Marton from Hungary (who was so brilliant with Uncle Vanya and other wonderful productions at Soulpepper over the years) breathtakingly good? There will be little argument about that.

People rave about “the Pinter pause,” but Harold Pinter himself insisted on directing this play in the U.K., and you can see why: David Mamet (who penned Glengarry Glen Ross and many other award-winning plays and movies) has a gift for machine-gun-type dialogue that is both hilarious and rich with depth and power. Oleanna is an unforgettable experience and one more notch on Soulpepper’s belt of greatness.

Oleanna runs at Soulpepper until March 5.

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