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David Mamet ranks among the century's most influential playwrights. Along with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, Mamet's unique dialogue -- abrasive, clipped rhythms peppered with obscenities -- has made a distinctive impact on every writer working in the contemporary theater.
Since his Glengarry Glen Ross earned the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Best American Play, Mamet's stature has grown to rival Arthur Miller's. His 1992 two-character play about sexual harassment on a college campus, Oleanna, became the decade's most controversial work.
As a screenwriter, he is also considered in Hollywood to be among the industry's finest craftsmen. His scripts include: The Untouchables, The Verdict, and Hoffa. He's also directed original material for the screen: House of Games, Things Change, and Homicide, among others.
In an era of Politically Correct moralizing, feminist critics continue to accuse Mamet of misogyny.
That's why Mamet invited attorney Alan Dershowitz to attend a rehearsal of his two character play Oleanna at Harvard just before its 1992 world premiere. The drama occurs entirely in a college office where a female student accuses her male professor of attempted rape. Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor as well as a best-selling author, had recently taken over the case of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, also accused of rape, when he attended the rehearsal.
While Dershowitz observed, he exchanged the following dialogue with Mamet about Oleanna.
MAMET: How's Mr. T?
DERSHOWITZ: He told me he'd never cried before in his life, but on his first day in prison he tried to -- and couldn't. He just doesn't understand what's happened to him. He's done this a hundred times before and there's never been any consequences.
MAMET: (later, during rehearsal break) So waddayathink?
DERSHOWITZ: How did you live my life for me?
MAMET: Nobody with a happy life went into showbiz.
DERSHOWITZ: It's like a witchhunt here at Harvard. Now I always have somebody in my office when I meet with students. I'm writing a novel about a date-rape.
MAMET: When I was single and teaching twenty years ago, I didn't know a professor who wasn't having an affair with a student. I wanted to talk to some law students after a preview performance, but your department wouldn't let us put up an invitation without a description of the play.
DERSHOWITZ: That's what they told you? I'll put up an announcement in my office. They ask me what it's about, I'll say none of your fucking business.
MAMET: Is the battery and attempted rape plausible?
DERSHOWITZ: Generally, (your student's) very accurate. But rape? An indictment is not a bill of particulars. An indictment is an accusation. The literal meaning is that an indictment is not a formal judgement. They wouldn't bring this case to court as an attempted rape.
MAMET: What do you think the reaction will be?
DERSHOWITZ: Audiences will be very divided. There will be those who genuinely hate it. There will be those who genuinely love it. There will be a large group of people who will love it and say they hate it. That's why the law department is afraid to put up the poster. They're terrified of being associated with the ideas that this play stands for. Maybe this is a male perspective, but I identify with your professor. And she ruined her case the moment she showed him that list (of books he had to stop teaching). He could take that to the tenure board and say this woman is extorting me.
MAMET: He's obviously not a rapist. What's to prevent either of these people from getting into court and lying their head off?
DERSHOWITZ: She's certaily interpreting this as she honestly sees it. They're not liars. The first act is sexual. The second act, he's angry. Seeing something is so different from having it explained. Would you like to come now and critique my argument for the second court of appeals?
Reported by Richard Stayton. Copyright © 1995.