David Mamet’s 1992 play seems doomed to be perennially relevant. In Lucy Bailey’s clear and pulsating production at the Ustinov it’s clear to see why. Whatever Mr Mamet’s intention at the time of writing, in other words regardless of the influence of the Hill-Thomas case (a supreme court judge [Thomas] accused of sexual harassment by a senior female lawyer [Hill]) the play raises profound questions which do not rely on the, did he/didn’t he? puzzle of the real life drama. The audience is privy to the ‘incident’ in which a working class university lecturer, John (Jonathan Slinger) who has dragged himself against the odds to the position of being considered for a tenure post at his university, is accused by a female student, Carol (Rosie Sheehy) of various forms of sexual misconduct; lewd anecdotes, unwanted sexual contact, together with a general abuse of his position.
Ms Sheehy is clinical in plotting the journey from troubled student who seems to think there is such a thing as a right to ‘understanding’, or at least a right to a pass grade, to the ideologically soaked foot soldier for the ‘group’, for whose ‘agenda’ she has become a mouthpiece. In the subsequent scene to the one the audience witnesses, and which seemed innocuous enough, events have become not mis-interpreted, but re-interpreted according to a new paradigm. Common human interactions have become weapnonised such that an inconsequential hand on the shoulder has become sexual assault. It’s as if Willy Russel’s Rita had failed to gain any understanding from her tutor’s mentoring and consequently sublimated her failure into an attack on the whole educational establishment and the prevailing norms of the student / tutor relationship. Ms Sheehy’s Carol thus becomes a writhing ball of rights devoid of humanity or fellow feeling. Her final coruscating tirade is delivered with the all-consuming passion of the true believer. This is where the lasting power of the play lies, be it the ideology of the religious, political, historiographical or whatever it may be, the closing of minds and the closing out of humanity in the quest for ideological purity is an ever present threat.
The mistake of Jonathan Slinger’s, John, a good liberal, is to give too much ground. It is precisely his willingness to see the other side of the argument, which leaves him open to Carol’s excoriating attacks. When liberals cede the ground to intolerance, totalitarianism is never far behind with its demand that we confess our sins and cleanse our minds of ‘wrong thinking’. The enormities of the twentieth century should be a warning to history that we should always be on our guard to any such slide into policing thought. That is Mamet’s final flourish as John realizes the authoritarian nature of the forces against him. Unfortunately his understanding comes too late and, intellectually trounced, he descends into the kind of act that, ironically, he was guiltless of originally.
The production rings like a perfect piece of lead crystal and is as timely now as it ever was or is ever likely to be. ★★★★★ Graham Wyles 15th December 2020
Oleanna is opening in the Arts Theatre in London on 21st July. More information and tickets here
Photo by Nobby Clark
