Oleanna (Acting Edition for Theater Productions) Paperback – January 1, 1998

I had to buy this very short story for my college Critical Thinking class. I was relieved to see that it is a pretty bare version that sticks to a simplistic form. Some other students in the class had bought a version that had easily 80 more pages (I'm not sure how this could be given how short the story is) so I was very happy with my choice. Mamet is an excellent play write and I found his story to be fantastic. I recommend watching the film AFTER you read the story because I've noticed the film easily persuades you from your original stances and I believe this is due to the visual and body language used.....so read first!

I love David Mamet as both a writer and director. I love both the story and dialogue in this play.

This is one of y favorite plays. The script was in good condition and lovely all around.

my first time participating in a play and I loved that this helped me get my lines right! thank you!

Classic Mamet and great if you need a two person scene selection for class work

Holy crap how stupid of a book. I guess the guy that plays Frank Galagher is the guy that assaults Oleanna in the movie though, Shameless is a way better show than this thoughtless abortion.

Love it!!

I think the villain of this play is obvious. It's the feminist group that recruit Carol. Carol herself, as we see in Act 1, is relatively sympathetic. She is a naive confused student who lives by the rulebook and is naturally confused by John's inappropriate behaviour.The play is all about an incident interpeted in different ways. Carol, a nervous failing student, meets with her professor John, an arrogant intellectual whose objective is to get tenure. He offers her an A grade in exchange for just meeting with him a few more times. It is revealed that Carol has a severe lack of self-esteem. She becomes distressed by her inability to understand and John puts his arm around her shoulder. She jumps away. In Act 2 she returns as a recruit of a mysterious feminist group and it is revealed that Carol has made a complaint that John sexually harrassed her. Everything escalates until the violent conclusion.Audiences and readers forget that the 'real' Carol is the one we see in Act 1, unless we are to take the interpretation that she has been putting on an act in order to provoke John into touching her. Her actions and behaviour are plausibly those of a confused student, intimidated by intellectual power and possibly has a bit of a crush on John. She certainly looks up to him. In Act 2, she escapes the influence of John but her insecurity is taken advantage of by a political group. Carol's flaw is her inability to act without influence from other people and her insecurity.John is generally interpreted as the victim of Carol and the group but as Carol identifies, he is the victim of his own actions as well. He enjoys being patriarchal and lording it over the students. His attempt at sympathy is ill-judged and just as Carol is about to make a personal admission, he takes a phone call about his house. Act 1 is full of covert sexual tension and though John never overtly sexually harasses her, he behaves inappropriately, deciding to give his failing student an A grade seemingly because she reminds him of himself but probably because he wants to look good and gain his tenure.Mamet tells the audience and actors enough to be interested- the politics still ring true today, even if feminism itself might have died down- but leaves lots of ambiguities and questions that are tantalisingly intriguing. Ultimately the play says more about the audience than the writer, if we leave aside the standard judgement of Mamet as celebrating male capitalism and misogyny. Yes, the characters are flawed people with unlikeable qualities but that's what makes them interesting.There are very few plays that stir up such fervent debate and such clashing opinions as Oleanna. Every time you read it, new themes, layers and interpretations keep appearing. How many modern plays can we say that this is true of?

Vergleichsweise sehr hoher Preis für ein so kurzes Drama / dünnes buch.Sonst war aber alles top :)Gern wieder

Pour le lire bien sûr!!!! J'avais vu cette pièce,elle m'avait plu