The Milwaukee Alchemist Theatre received a cease-and-desist letter from playwright David Mamet after one performance of Mamet’s Oleanna, a play about a pompous male professor accused of sexual harassment by a female student. The Alchemist’s production cast a man in the role of the female student. Theatre owners claimed they “did not change the character of Carol but allowed the reality of gender and relationship fluidity to add to the impact of the story.”
Mamet disagreed. I don’t think he plays the “gender fluidity” game. (via Prufrock)
“allowed the reality of gender and relationship fluidity to add to the impact of the story.”
In other words, “We rewrote the play and made it better.”
Not hard to imagine why a playwright would be put off by that.
I read a synopsis of the play and making Carol a homosexual man would spin the dynamics hard.
Breitbart reports, “This is not the first time Mamet has stopped production of his plays over gender issues. In 1999, he sent a cease and desist letter to a New York theater company that wanted to stage an all-woman production of Goldberg Street.”