Review, "Battles of the Sexes", Colin Rose, The Sun-Herald

Review, "Manipulation at its Most Sly, Even of the Audience", Lenny Ann Low, The Sydney Morning Herald

Article, "Two Tribes", Johnathan Pearlman, Metro, The Sydney Morning Herald



BATTLES OF THE SEXES
The Sun-Herald, October 6, 2002

Two revived plays will be stern challenges to their audiences, Colin Rose writes.

What: Oleanna and Greek Tragedy
Where: Oleanna runs at the TAP Gallery, Darlinghurst until October 19. Tickets $24/$18, "pay what you can" Wednesday. Bookings 8230 3137. Greek Tragedy runs at the Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St until Oct 20. Tickets $25/$19, “pay what you can” Tuesdays. Bookings 9699 3444
Ratings: Oleanna, 7/10. Greek Tragedy, 6/10.


THERE are, coincidentally, several links between these two fringe revivals. Both plays were originally written by writer-directors – David Mamet, who’s American and Mike Leigh, a Brit – who move easily between stage and film work.

Both plays dramatise the gender wars and male violence. Both plays are highly partisan, testing the loyalties of audiences and pretty much forcing you to pick a side.

Mamet’s highly controversial Oleanna premiered in 1992 at Harvard University, the bastion of American liberalism, an event Mamet described as "like doing The Diary of Anne Frank at Dachau".

John (James Hagan) is a middle-aged university lecturer, Carol (Melanie Holt) is his failing student. He’s concerned and sympathetic, if a bit patronising; her distress shades into anger and resentment. He tries to console her. But a fatherly hug becomes the pretext for her claim of sexual harassment, which puts his job and reputation on the line.

Thus Mamet jabs at the red-hot buttons of patriarchal power and political correctness. He has been labelled misogynistic and reactionary, no doubt because he stacks the argument in favour of John, who, in the beginning comes across as a decent guy trying to do the right thing.

The complaints levelled at Mamet only serve to prove his point that knee-jerk political correctness is a threat to free expression.

The unsettling genius of the play is that it inverts our expectations. John is older, smarter, in a position of power and a man. Patriarchal logic dictates that he should be in control, but in Mamet’s topsy-turvy environment of political correctness these attributes become liabilities.

This oozing away of authority – every sweaty, panicky drop of it – is registered superbly by Hagan. You can almost smell the fear and desperation on him. From waif to PC crusader, Holt’s Carol blossoms, poisonously, as John withers. Robyn McLean directs a production that is sure to get you arguing.

...

Both these productions reap the dividends of impressively detailed performances in pocket-sized theatres.



MANIPULATION AT ITS MOST SLY, EVEN OF THE AUDIENCE
The Sydney Morning Herald, October 7, 2002

OLEANNA
Reviewed by Lenny Ann Low

Tap Gallery, October 3

"Men have a lot to learn from women." So said writer-director David Mamet in his essay titled, simply, Women. Watching his play, Oleanna, it is difficult to discern his desire to be educated.

Oleanna caused an outcry and inspired passionate debate between the sexes when it premiered at Harvard University in 1992. As Mamet noted: "It was like doing The Diary of Anne Frank at Dachau."

Mamet's volatile whirlpool of perceived behaviour and combustible reaction between a university professor, John, and a young female student, Carol, divided audiences and critics throughout Oleanna's many stagings in the 1990s.

The play consists of three acts, set in John's (James Hagan) office. The first features Carol (Melanie Holt) as a vulnerable, disheartened student who cannot accept that she is failing her grades. She is almost pain-stricken in her desperation to pass but entirely bewildered by John's pompous, bombastic proclamations about the education system he draws his position of power from.

Between calls from his increasingly agitated wife about a house purchase, John moves from incomprehension at Carol's plight to a compassionate, rather zealous, desire to help.

Why this professor, on the verge of a hoped-for tenure, helps her is not clear. We deduce, perhaps, that he has a heart.

At one point, Carol breaks down and John places a consoling, paternalistic arm around her. From the audience, his actions look pretty creepy but we do not see Carol's reaction.

After interval Carol returns a stronger, more confident woman. With the support of a nameless, faceless "group", she has brought sexual harassment charges against John. Later, after another emotional confrontation, she accuses him of rape. Now it is John's turn to be bewildered. He cannot accept that Carol's actions will cost him his job, his house and possibly his family. The play descends into a rage-filled and, ultimately, violent outcome triggered by Carol's offer to drop her complaint if he will alter the curriculum.

It is a shocking outcome and we are left with both characters reeling in their own horror.

Director Robyn McLean's production leaves this maelstrom of political correctness and gender warfare open to interpretation. Both performances are strong and capable. James Hagan drips with sweat in a fretful performance and Melanie Holt delivers with the grace and strength of a young Naomi Watts. A welcome revival of Mamet's slightly flawed play.

Until October 19.



TWO TRIBES
The Sydney Morning Herald, Metro, September 9, 2002

Sexism, racism, political correctness - David Mamet's Oleanna is set to divide audiences again, writes JONATHAN PEARLMAN.

OLEANNA
Director: Robyn McLean
Stars: James Hagan, Melanie Holt
Where: TAP Gallery, Level 1, 278 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst
When: Tonight until October 19
How much: $24/$18
Bookings: 8230 3137

A Sydney theatre group is reviving the play that set off one of the fiercest cultural debates of the '90s - and the producers are doing all they can to force local audiences to take sides.

When David Mamet's Oleanna opened in Boston in 1992, there were cheers, boos and walkouts. In the play, a college student (Carol) confronts the male professor who is failing her and ends up charging him with sexism, elitism and racism. Critics called her the "first villainess of the '90s" and declared that the play "left the tables turned in a struggle for power".

In keeping with the play's theme of gender conflict, Wildcard Productions launched its season, starring Melanie Holt and James Hagan, with a women's preview night two days ago at which women paid half-price for their tickets (men paid $12), followed by a men's preview last night (women paid $12, men $6).

"I think the play will stir up disagreement in the audience, so we liked the idea of one night having a larger female audience and one night having a larger male audience and seeing how it affects people's experience of the play," says the play's director, Robyn McLean.

"We thought about segregating them and giving them tomatoes - but we thought it would be more interesting to segregate them psychologically before they go in to the play by having them on different priced tickets."

Though Mamet was accused by some critics of sexism and misogyny, the new production at the TAP Gallery aims to show there are valid arguments on both sides of the debate between the play's overzealous feminist warrior and its self-satisfied male don.

"The play touches on a lot of areas: political correctness, academic freedom, the interpretation of words," says McLean. "But it doesn't make a clear statement. It juggles the ideas in front of you, and the great thing is that some people will interpret the action one way and some people another.

"You've got to be very careful how you play it and try to strike an even balance. Some people see it and say, 'Oh, she's a bitch', and other people say, 'I think she makes really good points'."

Though much of the dialogue between Carol and her professor, John, is fuelled by discord and venom, McLean hopes to demonstrate that their passionate conflict is only one step away from communion.

"These are two people from very different backgrounds with their own agendas, and they're trying to communicate and to connect," McLean says. "I'm trying to present the different shades of their connection. There are places in the play where they're far apart and there are places where one is actually listening to the other and they are making a connection.

"There are some soft moments in the play where the two characters are communicating. It shows how emotional intimacy can lead on to physical intimacy."

McLean, who works at a teaching college, says personal elements inevitably intrude into the professional relationship between teacher and student - an issue Mamet was bold enough to include in the play.

"There's one moment where Carol's frustrated and John's made the decision to help her with her confidence and he sits down and talks to her and helps her," she says. "And there's a moment where he starts to tell her a story and she becomes quite vulnerable and reveals her insecurity and he starts to again be very caring and [reassuring].

"It's a moment between them that could possibly, in other circumstances, lead to something else. It's like one gesture away from sexual harassment. One professor might decide to take that step forward and another might not."

These days, the term political correctness may be met by many with sighs of frustration or pangs of nostalgia, but McLean insists the play is as relevant now as it was 10 years ago.

"Oleanna came out just after sexual harassment really came out into the open. Political correctness is important because power relationships are always [there].

"Even though it's now a cliché, political correctness is still with us and I don't think it will ever go out of favour."