Oleanna is a two-actor/two-character play about a university professor who is in the process of buying a house and is about to be granted tenure, and a failing student who accuses him of rape when he tries to help her understand his lessons.
Mamet wrote this play with a fast pace; I could not put the book down until all of the action was over, and the sudden, sting-in-the-tail ending left me wanting more, not quite satisfied. In the script, Mamet's characters talk about how people learn and understand and the value of education. John, the professor, at one point says that it is his job to provoke the students into questioning why they are at the university and continuing their education. I believe that the play as a whole provokes the reader into questioning everything they come across; everything that is said, everything they understand and everything they don't, everything they see and hear, and everything that is done. It forces the audience to question the conventions of being human.
An intense read full of thought-evoking goodness.
Has anyone else out there read Oleanna by David Mamet? What were your thoughts?
- Bonnee.
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