Internet site, Candrama, Oleanna, and more discussion topics

[Anne Nothof]

As far as I am concerned, any or all of the topics raised by Kathy Chung as
possibilities for discussion on candrama would be just fine.  One of the
reasons for the silence may be that few topics have been proposed.  I very much
appreciate Kathy's proactive approach, and the valuable information she is
disseminating on jobs and theatre productions.  Is it now possible to access
the American Theatre link via internet?  i.e. is there a login, or do we have
to join a club?
 
In response to Kathy's request for experiences of "Oleanna", I would like to
offer the information that Sandra Tomc of UBC presented a plenary paper at the
American Society for theatre Research in New York (Nov 17-20) on "David Mamet's
Oleanna and the Way of the Flesh", in which she argues that Mamet carefully
orchestrated the dialogue so as to determine the gestures of the actors, the
result being that the odds for political correctness were weighted heavily on
the side of the prof.  The final violent action was the inevitable result of
the failure to communicate through language, and an unequivocal means of
"communication".  I hope I haven't misrepresented Professor Tomc's thesis,
but I am presently suffering from "post-conference overload."  In the
perforance at the Vancouver Playhouse, an attempt was made to even the odds by
playing the initial physical gestures of the prof as ambiguous if not sexual,
and in a discussion on the CBC with two actors who played the role in Toronto
and Calgary, there was some disagreement as to how compromised the prof really
was, according to his "body language".  In the production which I saw in
London, at the Duke of York's Theatre, directed by Harold Pinter, the language
and the gestures were antiseptic  (as you might expect from anything connected
with Pinter), allowing for an "open interpretation", but also comprising the
humanity of the student and the prof.  They became ciphers in a constructed
occasion for debate (which I suspect Mamet intended, since he does subscribe to
a theatre philosophy of audience manipulation).  And finally, at the ASTR
conference, the information was offered by the chair of the plenary session
that Mamet has commented that "Oleanna" is an allegory for the university as a
failed utopia.
  I didn't see the Edmonton production, once more proving, I suppose, that for
a Canadian, plays are always better somewhere else.