Oleanna, or, the Play of Pedagogy

Abstract

When David Mamet’s Oleanna premiered in 1992 in Boston and New York, under the direction of its author, critics were quick to point out that the two-character play presented a devastating vision of the tense relationships between men and women in contemporary American society. They pointed to the recurrence of a frequent Mamet theme: the inability of language to elucidate meaning and its use as a weapon of humiliation or concealment. Many provided a cultural context for the play in referring to its relationship in time to the Hill/Thomas political brouhaha and to the “P.C. controversy” in American higher education. And some critics made much of the gaps in the play’s narrative, which created characters who were both memorable and opaque, particularly the character of Carol, who undergoes a transformation during the play that many saw as unbelievable, politically repugnant, or both. Many critics acknowledged the rage released by men of the audience, whose antipathy toward Carol exploded in extraordinary and immediate vituperative verbal responses. Indeed, their dislike of her was mirrored in the near-final moments when John, reduced in language to a wrathful and graphic expletive, stands over Carol in a posture of savage retribution for her successful effort to destroy his career.¹

”Teaching is a performative act.” —bell hooks “That is how they educate us. By osmosis!” —Augusto Boal