Photo: Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times.
SWEET
“Oleanna” still fills me with reservations — artistic as well as political. Yes, the debate is tendentiously rigged. But you can’t argue with a play that retains the power to get theatergoers arguing with each other as they head home.
Charles McNulty – LA Times
BITTERSWEET
The only line of defense against this play’s intrinsic misogyny is the argument that both characters are equally horrible. Pullman’s affability throws that argument right out the window of Neil Patel’s opulent set.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly
SWEET
It’s rare for a play that seemed highly pertinent and provocative in its time to feel even more galvanizing nearly two decades later. Playwright David Mamet has been categorized by many as a chronicler of the dark and coarse sides of the male psyche, yet in this startling 1992 work, he incisively explored a disastrous communication breakdown between a man and a woman, without assigning definitive blame. From a more global perspective, his play illuminates the dangerous human capacity for allowing emotional reactions to cloud rational thinking. Director Doug Hughes and two consummate actors provide a fresh and mesmerizing take on this seminal Mamet work.
Les Spindle – Backstage
SWEET
In “Oleanna,” pedantic prof John (Bill Pullman) kicks off a student-teacher conference by pontificating, “We can only interpret the behavior of others through the screen we … create.” But when the screen of student Carol (Julia Stiles) insists on interpreting his behavior as sexual harassment or worse, the result is akin to handling nitroglycerin on a potholed road. Brilliant acting and Doug Hughes’ canny helming fully animate David Mamet’s galvanic 1992 two-hander at the Mark Taper Forum.
Bob Verini – Variety
BITTERSWEET
Bill Pullman is an unparalleled actor who nevertheless has a hard time making us believe there is actually someone at the other end of his interminable phone calls. Julia Stiles brings Carol to life with an exacting attention to detail that allows the material, rather than invective, to indict her. Ultimately, their performances are skilled, well choreographed and precise; even the violence is carefully crafted with fight direction provided by Rick Sordelet. What’s missing, at least for me, is a messy sense of outrage.
Leigh Kennicott – Stagehappenings
BITTERSWEET
Director Doug Hughes’ debut at the Mark Taper Theatre is off to a successful start with “Oleanna” along with Fight Director Rick Sordelet’s lively and demanding choreographic sequences. Actor Bill Pullman’s performance as John, a professor on the verge of tenure status, is eerily realistic as his character struggles between his commitment as an educator and his utter hatred of the education system. Julia Stiles is evoking and powerful as Carol, the disillusioned college student that threatens to destroy John in her relentless pursuit to pass his course and to stand-up to what she believes to be just and real. Yet hovering over their dynamic and demanding performance as John and Carol is Mamet’s choppy, fragmented, and falsely conversational dialogue exchange that begs for authenticity. The result is a heightened sense of anticipation in Stiles’ delivery, which contrasts with Pullman’s steadfast pacing.
Jennifer Fordyce – Socal.com
SWEET
This production was good. There was an imposed cadence on the language for several segments that was fairly distracting. However, I assume it was a choice to adhere strictly to the text and there apparently is something distinctly Mametian about the choice that I am unaware of. The play, although far from a feel good story, was classic Mamet in its fast fire language and intellectual density. I only wish the opponents in this story were more evenly matched so there could be some truer depth to the philosophical debate of abuses of power and sexual intimidation. There’s just too much ground to cover in one act.
Keisha7 – LASplash
BITTERSWEET
Despite those drawbacks, Pullman and Stiles, directed by the Tony Award-winning Doug Hughes (Doubt), manage to do a decent job, especially Pullman with his defeated, desperate portrayal of John. However, nothing about the production really stands out… except the play’s half-articulated concept.
Eric Rosen – EdgeLosAngeles
SWEET
David Mamet’s “Oleanna” is a problem play if there ever was one. Short, it packs a lot of uncomfortable material tightly with a resolution that leaves the audience unsatisfied, even angry. It requires star power to draw people in and Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles are names that will bring people. Under the direction of Doug Hughes, the play doesn’t disappoint and it will, as I am sure it was meant to do, raise anxieties.
Jana J. Monji – LAExaminer
