Classic play reflects current social issues
WILLIAMSVILLE- The Rock River Players offer four performances of David Mamet’s “Oleanna.” Written in 1992, inspired by the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill Senate hearings yet well before the #MeToo era, the succinct three-act play detonates the fury of sexual politics through a power struggle between a male college professor and a female student. Twenty-seven years later, the subject could not be more relevant.
There is much in “Oleanna” that rings frighteningly true: a smug professor, enamored with his own oratory prowess, dismissive of a struggling student; students trying to shut down a class because the professor’s reading list is questionable; and, most notably, a shift in the balance of power between the generations and the sexes, using language as their ammunition and tool for winning power over one another.
“Oleanna” features Jon Mack and Rebecca Musgrove. Dody Riggs assists, and Miles Keefe is on lights.
Performances are Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18, at 8 pm, at the Williamsville Hall, Dover Road; and Friday and Saturday, May 24 and 25, at 8 pm at the Hooker-Dunham Theater, 139 Main Street, Brattleboro. Tickets are $10 and $8 for students and seniors and will be available at the door.
For more information or to purchase tickets online visit www.williamsvillehall.com.