Oleanna was the last book that I had to read for university. Well… I say book, it’s a play that discusses the differences in power between men and women. It literally took me about half an hour to read, it was quite interesting. I didn’t understand a couple of things, but it was still an interesting read.

In David Mamet’s latest play, a male college instructor and his female student sit down to discuss her grades and in a terrifyingly short time become the participants in a modern reprise of the Inquisition. Innocuous remarks suddenly turn damning. Socratic dialogue gives way to heated assault. And the relationship between a somewhat fatuous teacher and his seemingly hapless pupil turns into a fiendishly accurate X ray of the mechanisms of power, censorship, and abuse.

The play features just two characters – John and Carol. John is Carol’s teacher and Carol doesn’t understand the grade that she got on her test so she goes to John to talk to him about them. Mamet discusses power throughout the play, having John hold the power at first because he is the teacher with control over Carol’s grades. Over the course of the play, it is Carol that suddenly holds the power over John.

At first, I didn’t realise that time passes between acts. It was only when I attended my class at university, that I learnt of it – which actually made the play make more sense to me. It was interesting to see how John’s comments could be interpreted in such different ways. At first, they seem completely harmless, but Carol interprets them as sexual and John as coming onto her. Because Carol interprets them in this way, she goes to a school committee to try and get John fired. Can a verbal assault be construed as rape? Or given Mamet’s play on the ambiguity of language, does it constitute any situation where no is taken to mean yes?The ending is explosive, ending with a scene of abuse. However, the ending is also ambiguous with Carol’s last line.

Oleanna is a very interesting play, and I think that Mamet does a very good job and exploring power, and I do like to think that education has changed a lot since Mamet wrote this play. This play has little to do with literal sexual predators, but everything to do with the blind manipulation of power. Is her rage justified? Has he violated her boundaries? Is he a victim of his own making — or hers? . It’s very cleverly done I will say that. And I can imagine it would work so well on stage. But it just wasn’t that enjoyable, hence the average rating.

The last few books that I’ve read for uni haven’t really been that entertaining, but I have learnt something from each text.

Disclaimer: contains triggers for rape, verbal and domestic abuse.