The revival of David Mamet's 1992 Oleanna in current production at the Golden Theater stars one of my favorite actors, Bill Pullman, whose elastic face and frenetic movements are on full display in this theatrical pas de deux with the patrician, cool Julia Stiles.
They play John, a professor on the verge of tenure and closing on a new house, and Carol, a student who is failing his class. As with all Mamet's plays--most recently seen in last year's superb production of "Speed the Plow"--the subject is language, the rapid fire staccato of one liners, half completed words, thoughtful and thoughtless arguments that make up contemporary conversation, confrontation, and conflict.
Oleanna became topical in its day as it coincided with the Clarence Thomas/ Anita Hill contretemps, which was its good fortune and bad. Something is lost when Mamet is used to exemplify sociology or current events. Post scandal for 2009, Oleanna has been resurrected to examine these issues anew. That seems to be the premise of the talk-backs scheduled at play's end to engage the audience with issues of possible sexual harassment. Whose side are you on?
Experts--in legal fields, psychiatry--want us to engage in this discourse as led by the jovial comic radio host Lionel last night. (Other hosts will fare otherwise, I'm sure.) Well, I am on the side of good theater. I am also drawn to Bill Pullman who, even when his character is rudely and tragically taking calls on his cell phone instead of giving Carol her due attention, is still mesmerizing, a good reason to see this play. A confession, I never understood how Meg Ryan's character could abandon him in Sleepless in Seattle. In A League of Their Own, I understood Geena Davis' character leaving baseball when he returns from war. And, when Sandra Bullock's character falls for him in While You Were Sleeping, I was already there.
The eminent culture critic Greil Marcus in his book The Shape of Things to Come waxes poetic on the subject of Bill Pullman's face in David Lynch's masterpiece, Lost Highway. Pullman, for his part, is as proud of the fine work he does in theater as he is in the romantic comedies for which he is best known: he performed on Broadway in Edward Albee's Who is Sylvia? or The Goat and more recently in Peter and Jerry, and wrote a play that was produced in San Francisco.
Not surprising, in person his face is extraordinarily expressive as he enthuses about his roles. In the movie Bottle Shock, for example, he said about shooting one pivotal scene in which lacking a corkscrew, he assails a bottle with an unsheathed scabbard. The bottle was scored, he said, and at first the top just flipped over limply instead of flying off with gusto. That's an apt image for this play: veering off Mamet's prodigious verbal strength, even at the end when John and Carol get physical, this Oleanna has the same flat effect