CityLife

Oleanna

MY mother used to say there are always two sides to every argument and that's certainly the case in David Mamet's Oleanna.

The American playwright, who wrote the award-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, conceived what appears, at first, to be the rather simple scenario of an insecure student in conversation with her tutor.

However, as the scene is examined from two completely different
view-points, it becomes increasingly clear that, far from being simple, it's an incredibly complex power struggle on several levels ranging from the academic to the sexual.

As Carol, the student who's struggled to get a place in  university,
Kosha Engler's performance ranges from initial insecurity to controlled manipulation as her claims of sexual harassment place her tutor's career at risk.

Quite magnificent

American actor Colin Stinton, is quite magnificent as the professor
shocked by her allegations. Seen in films like The Bourne Ultimatum and Tomorrow Never Dies, he's also a National Theatre actor although this is his first   time in the north-west.

Ultimately his counter claims that she is maliciously misinterpreting
his  behaviour leaves the audience to decide who is telling the truth.

Director Iqbal Khan, making his debut at the Octagon, has been fortunate to  work with the late Harold Pinter, who incidentally directed the British  premiere of this intricate piece. He keeps the verbal arguments moving at pace avoiding the trap of making this a boring academic treatise.

True to the maxim

Apparently when it opened in America in 1992 and later  in London,
arguments  broke out in the audience with opinion divided on the gender issue. Not so at the Octagon.

Oleanna only lasts an hour and a half and keeps true to the maxim -
always  leave your audience wanting more. That means there's still plenty of time to argue about it  on the way home!

Oleanna is at the Octagon Theatre until Saturday, May 23. £9 - £18.50. Call 01204 520661.

 

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