Review: OLEANNA at Florida Rep

Florida Rep is presenting Oleanna, a play written by David Mamet shortly after the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, in its Artstage Studio Theatre. In it, two characters of unequal status, a college student and her professor, engage in a power struggle. Before long, other themes rear their ugly heads: sexual harassment and worse, elitism, wokeism. It’s a ripped from the headlines kind of story.

The acting is impressive, but the play is hard to watch.

Ella Olesen as Carol is failing class and drops in on her professor John played by Michael Turner. She shows almost no emotion and insists she can’t understand anything he says. Is she depressed? A bit autistic? Not too bright? Or purposely acting obtusely? We can’t tell, and neither can he.

In the midst of buying a house to celebrate because he’s about to be given tenure, the professor is distracted by repeated phone calls from his wife and his real estate agent. He’s pompous and condescending, but he’s game to try to help his student. Why? We can’t tell that either. He appears to be acting in good faith, but she interprets everything he says and does through what seems to be a feminist lens. It’s #MeToo before there was #MeToo.

As the roles are reversed, she grows more strident and accusatory. Olesen is frightening as she changes from mousy to confident from one act to the next. Turner goes in the opposite direction, becoming disheveled, bewildered, and finally violent as her assertions cost him his job. Has she been right about him all along?

If you’re up for an intellectual and emotional debate, go and see this one. Oleanna runs through May 19. For tickets, call 239.332.4488.

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