Drama: Oleanna

"Oh, to be in Oleanna, that's where I would rather be
Than be bound in Norway and drag the chains of slavery."

Folk Song

The Cast and Crew

Carol	Cecilia Amann
John	Antonio Brunetti
Director	Tessa Theodorakopoulos
Assistant Director	Moritz Krehl

Oleanna

A University Professor advises a female student in his office. This private meeting yields two wildly different ideas of what actually took place. At first, John handles his student with fatherly condescension. When he later allows his guard to slip and offers his troubled student true sympathy, Carol sees sexual harassment and accuses him of attempted rape.

In David Mamet's gut-wrenching two person play, there is no clear cut truth. The inherent dangers of political correctness, the teacher-student power struggle and communication breakdown are highlighted.

David Mamet

Born on November 30, 1947 in Illinois, USA, David Alan Mamet studied at Goddard College in Vermont and at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York before venturing into the professional world of the theatre. He began his career as an actor and director before achieving success in 1976 with three Off-Off Broadway plays, "The Duck Variations", "Sexual Perversity in Chicago", and "American Buffalo".

The most recognized element of Mamet's style is his sparse, clipped dialogue. Although reminiscent of such playwrights as Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett, Mamet's dialogue is so unique that it has become known as "Mametspeak". His language is not so much "naturalistic" as it is a poetic impression of streetwise jargon.

As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for "Glengarry Glen Ross" (which in 1984 also earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and "Speed-the-Plow" (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for "The Verdict" (1982) and "Wag the Dog" (1997).

"Oleanna" premiered in May 1992 in Cambridge, Mass. and appeared later that year off-Broadway at NYC's Orpheum Theatre, starring William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon. Harold Pinter directed the London premiere in 1993. The play was later turned into a movie directed by Mamet himself.

Mamet about Oleanna

I never really saw it as a play about sexual harassment. This play is a tragedy about power. You have a two character drama. One person is a man, and one person is a woman: two people in opposition, that's what drama means. If you've got a play with two characters on stage and one is a man and one is a woman they must be antagonists or else the play is not good.

These are two people with a lot to say to each other, with legitimate affection for each other. But protecting their positions becomes more important than pursuing their own best interests. And that leads them down the slippery slope to a point where, at the end of the play, they tear each other's throat out.

It is a play about two people, and each person's point of view is correct. Yet they end up destroying each other.

I think they are absolutely both wrong an they are absolutely both right. The play is structured as a tragedy. Tragedy says whichever side you choose, you are going to be wrong. Aristotle said we should see something at the end of tragedy that both is surprising and inevitable.

Source: "David Mamet in conversation"

Biographies

Tessa Theodorakopoulos

Tessa Theodorakopoulos was born in Athens and grew up in Paris. She studied Comparative Literature and Theater Arts / Directing at Brown University, R.I., USA. After first assistantships as a Highschool student in Paris she worked as Assistant Director in the U.S. (Krannert Center, Lincoln Center) and at the Stadttheater Konstanz and later as Director at the University Theatre Konstanz. Since 1976 she is Head of University Theatre Konstanz with two productions per annum. Since 1976 she teaches Theatre Art and Directing at the Konstanz University and sporadically directs in Stadttheater Konstanz (e.g. "Voll auf der Rolle", "Mensch ich lieb' dich doch", "Anna und der König") She directed various workshops in Germany, Greece and the U.S. as well as television productions ("Theater on television", Mega Channel Athens) and is founder and head of "Sommertheaterschule der Universität Konstanz". Favourite directing jobs: e.g. "Platonov", "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme", "Bernarda Albas House", "Der Reigen", "Polaroids" "Crave", "Humanisten", "Copenhagen", "Les Bonnes" and "Mighty Aphrodite".

Cecilia Amann

Cecilia Amann was born in Konstanz with an Irish/German family background. During her training at the Drama Centre London under Reuven Adiv she was performing in numerous plays by Shakespeare, Checkov, Miller, Molière and others. She is a founding member of the interdisciplinary company "crucible (Schmelztiegel)" with which she staged the production "formosa" (invited to Stuttgarter Theaterpreis 2006) and "commedia della macchina". She choreographed "Grete" for the 11. "Internationales Solo-Tanz-Festival" Stuttgart and is currently co-choreographing with her brother Philip Amann for "Frei-Raum" a contemporary dance project that will tour Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. In Schauspielbühnen in Stuttgart she has been performing amongst others in "20 000 Meilen unter dem Meer" , "Hamlet", "Der Lebkuchenmann" and "Komödie im Dunkeln."

Antonio Brunetti

Antonio Brunetti was born in Chicago, Illinois to Italian immigrants. His theatre studies were also in Chicago. Stage credits there include "The Elephant Man", "Italian-American Reconciliation", "Holiday", "I Hate Hamlet", and "The Diary of Anne Frank". While living in Germany, he has performed in several Stuttgart Theatre Centre productions, including "Urinetown - The Musical" (for which he won Best Actor in a Minor Role in the 2006 Tournament of Plays), "Les Miserables", "And Then They Came For Me - Remembering the World of Anne Frank", and "The Graduate" (Best Actor in Drama, 2007 T.O.P.). He has also worked with Julian Knab of the European Theatre School in Tübingen on a production of "Macbeth" (in German). This past summer he worked in Dublin on the independent film "Cavallo and the Birds", with his friend and collaborator, the filmmaker Andrew McAvinchey. He was also a member (percussionist) and toured with the Stuttgart electro-noise rock band "Access Denied".

Copyright: All information listed here was gleaned from info material provided by the International Theatre Stuttgart.

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