Bengaluru: On the surface, Oleanna is a play about a student and her college professor, who seems to be a little too familiar. Scratch it and you will find the nuances that go beyond the story and paint a clear picture of a power play. The dual-character play, originally written by Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony nominated David Mamet in 1992, is relevant even today, says director of the production Jagdish Raja. “It is a battle for power, no doubt. But unlike what you’d expect, it isn’t about colour either. It is like a study of the process of being privileged, of class and the haves and the have-nots. It is timeless.”
The play opens with a male college professor who has hit the jackpot of his career. He has just got tenure and a new posting into a big university and life appears rosy, but not for long. A female student in his class, Carol, finds out her grades aren’t as bright as they need to be after a discussion with him. The plot thickens as she accuses him of sexual harassment. But is he really guilty? Or is she just a liar trying to get the odds in her favour, are the two questions that Raja wants his audience to decide for themselves. “Every single time this play is performed, there are two factions that come out fighting over who is right and who is wrong.” He says with a laugh, “But it is really up to them to answer those questions. It is a very provocative narrative and wasn’t easy to do at all.” The 90-minute play is conversational, says Raja. He describes Oleanna to be one of those plays that weren’t meant to be in textbooks. “This play keeps me coming back, ever since the first time I saw it. Oleanna wasn’t meant to be read on paper, it was always meant to be heard, if you know what I mean,” he says excited about the nine-day run that the production is set to have at Jagriti Theatre.
As for actors Rebecca Spurgeon and Preetam Koilpillai, each hold it close to their hearts, but for different reasons. For Spurgeon, she found a little bit of herself in Carol. “I believe in her as a character, no arguments there. I feel very strongly about gender rights in a patriarchal world and I could see the honesty in her actions. The character makes you think long and hard,” she says passionately. “It wasn’t a character that I could just take off at the end of the day.”
Koilpillai stresses on his love for one of the themes, education. “The theories of how and what we learn. Education has been reduced to a mindless regurgitation of facts and figures. This kind of education produces a particular kind of individual, an
individual incapable of independent thought and deed, and a society in which dogma, authoritarianism and even extremism, become the norm,” he says.
Oleanna may seem like a taste of vintage, but its questions seem more relevant than they have ever been. Catch Raja and the crew in back-to-back shows at Jagriti Theatre, Whitefield from Sunday 11 June till 18 June at 3 pm and 6.30pm.
