Last night I checked out the VanderHouse Production of Oleanna. They performed out of Stage Left for just a couple of nights as I’m sure you all saw here. Everyone who knows me is aware of how picky I am and for those of you joining us at ESP from cyberland, I am very picky. Despite that flaw of dissecting everything beyond recognition I had a great night at the theatre.
The play, in and of itself, has certain issues when it comes to delivery. You are stuck inside the short and silent world of Mamet. Wait…before we go on I should say that this is my opinion only and I am in no way a certified theater officiant. If the theatre world was divided by chief and cook I am proud to declare myself a cook.
Back to Mamet…
This is a massive obstacle not only for actor but also audience. When I watch a production on stage I forget about real life. Like many others I become aware of the audience, being myself, and that acknowledgment changes everything. I feel that as an actor I have fought that part of myself which is aware of people watching me on stage. The part that pulls me away from the reality of how people react.
As an audience member I did the same thing at first.
As the words and pauses began to unfold before the audience I thought to myself, No one talks like this…There’s no way people can really communicate like this. Then I started to fall into the rhythm of if and it suddenly snapped into this clarity of how the words are written so in the manner of speech that at first my mind couldn’t believe that a writer had nailed it.
Suddenly the puzzle pieces snapped in place as well as the plot progressed. At one point the Professor character, played by Russ Morgan, was talking to the student, played by Charlotte Dearborn, about prejudice. The Professor says that prejudice is when you feel so strongly about something that you can’t even here an opposing thought to it without feeling anger. He also talks about his need to fail even when he is succeeding saying something along the lines of realizing that if he didn’t want to be such a failure he should try succeeding some time. Even though these thoughts are pivotal to the scene as an audience member it was not until the show was finished that I realized their true importance.
These were maps. Mamet said Here are some things that I find interesting in the first act. It is a simple nod to not only these ideas but others. Then in the third act you end up in those places. The Professor has allowed his old vices of self-doubt/destruction to be motivated by pride, putting himself in a situation where he could only fail. The same feeling happens with prejudice.
The simple speech and the clear cut direction of EJ VanderVoort meant for me that as the plot progressed I sided with the Professor as far as to the two characters discrepancy betweens events that had occurred. I began to feel that same prejudice that the Professor had spoken of in the first act. I was enraged to hear the allegations against him.
It also had a nice balance to it. Control lied in the Professor’s hand in Act One. In Act Two there was more of an ebb and flow of control between the two. By the time we got to Three the student held the position of dominance. I like that…simple, neat construction.
All in all I really enjoyed it. I think the best way to judge a piece of theater is Does it make me feel something. Not only did this play make me feel but it took me to where it wanted me to go instead of letting my head go in other directions. I had no time to nit-pick, I was on a journey.
I have only recently discovered Mamet…I’m a late bloomer…but so far so good.
Thank you Russ, Charlotte, EJ and Mollie for an awesome night. You guys rocked it.
