Oleanna by David Mamet at New Mexico Actors Lab

Oleanna, by Pulitzer Prize-winner and Tony-nominated David Mamet, portrays the power struggle between John, a university professor up for tenure, and Carol, one of his female students who initially comes to see him about her grades. The meeting leads to her making a complaint of sexual harassment with the backing of an activist student organization, which threatens John’s career and tenure.  When it was first staged in 1992, the play drew comparisons to the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas debate during Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearing. The play’s shocking ending demonstrates the power of theatre and its ability to polarize discussion. NMAL’s production will offer an opportunity to revisit the debate in the context of the #MeToo era.  The New York Times described Oleanna as “wholly absorbing -- a typically virtuoso display of Mr. Mamet's gift for locking the audience inside the violent drama of his characters…. John and Carol go to it with hand-to-hand combat that amounts to a primal struggle for power. As usual with Mr. Mamet, the vehicle for that combat is crackling, highly distilled dialogue unencumbered by literary frills or phony theatrical ones.”  Directed by Suzanne Lederer and performed by Geoffrey Pomeroy and Emily Rankin, Oleanna will be run in repertory with Eleanor Burgess’ The Niceties.