KEY POINTS:
David Mamet's controversial tilt at politically correct feminism exploded on to the American theatre scene in 1992 at a crucial moment in the culture wars.
A year earlier, allegations of sexual harassment almost persuaded the United States Senate to block the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and university campuses around the world were in a furore over issues like date rape.
Since then, the feminist revolution has become an entrenched orthodoxy within the academic world the play describes, while the broader society has experienced a backlash against political correctness.
At the same time, feminist politics have been transformed by the appeal of "girl power" and theorists like Camille Paglia who vigorously reject the mind-set of victimhood.
All of which makes Opportune Productions' revival of Oleanna a fascinating and timely occasion to assess the relevance of the play.
The narrative about an unconventional professor whose career is destroyed by a sexual harassment claim is clearly loaded against the excesses of dogmatic feminism but this production takes us beyond the rhetorical debate and focuses on the emotional turmoil of the two protagonists.
Director Michael Lawrence highlights Mamet's use of fragmented, non-communicative language. Unfinished phrases hang in the air and Pinteresque pauses encourage the audience to consider the deeper psychological impulses motivating the characters.
In the role of the student who lays the harassment complaint, Alison Titulaer carries off a remarkable transformation. In the first act she is needy, insecure and terrified of being defeated by an educational system she cannot comprehend. In the second she returns as an avenging angel.
The character could easily come across as a manipulative feminist ogre but Titulaer's performance elicits sympathy as she delivers a heartfelt appeal for recognition of the simple human realities of her emotional experience.
Jim McLarty's portrayal of the professor also avoids the easy option of playing the tragic hero. He produces a finely nuanced characterisation of a man who takes pride in his radical scepticism but covets the material benefits of a tenured position.
The heat may have gone out of the issues that are raised in Oleanna but this wonderfully complex play makes it clear that the underlying tensions remain unresolved.
