Thursday, November 28, 2019

Oleanna By David Mamet Essays - Oleanna, David Mamet, Carol Peletier

Oleanna by David Mamet ?Oleanna? by David Mamet The Birmingham Stage Company, directed by John Harrison. The Old Rep Theatre, Wednesday September 29th The Birmingham Stage Company is the resident company of the Old Rep Theatre. Its patrons are Sir Derek Jacobi and Paul Scofield. The company is unfounded and relies mainly on box office income. Company productions include Speed-The-Plow by David Mamet, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. The present production by The Birmingham Stage Company is David Mamet's ?Oleanna?. David Mamet is a contemporary writer well known for his shocking and controversial plays. While ?Oleanna? doesn't have Mamet's infamous swearing, it does pack all the other Mamet traits; realistic, ?ping pong? dialogue and lots of conflict. There are only two people in the play, John (Neal Foster) and Carol (Sophie Bold). John is a university professor (his subject is not clear, although one would assume he teaches psychology). Carol is his failing student who he offers to talk to and help her understand his subject. Carol's background is unclear and gets more so as the play progresses. In the first ?session? John uses a number of examples to try to get what he is saying across to Carol who is still struggling to understand. Each time John starts to get somewhere with Carol the telephone rings and interrupts what he is trying to say. That is how act one ends with Carol about to say something which could determine the outcome of the play but is interrupted by the telephone. In act two the relationship between the two characters is totally different to what it was in act one. The act opens with John and Carol in the office again, however the ambience is a lot less relaxed and we soon find out that Carol has lodged a compl aint to the university (tenure committee) because she thinks John to be elitist, hypocritical and she accuses him of sexual harassment. When act three opens John is accused of rape and Carol is trying to get his book banned. When Carol tells John that she is trying to ban his book, this as this is the final straw because she is trying to take away the only thing that he believes in anymore and he ends the play by beating Carol up. All of the action takes place over about month. We don't actually see the action, more the aftermath of it. ?Oleanna? has many themes but the most poignant are sexual harassment, political correctness and power. John gives an example of his ?elitist? attitude when he gives talks about the sexual behaviour of the Rich and poor. He starts by saying, ?A college friend once told me that poor people copulate more then rich people do, but rich people take more of their cloths off Carol interprets this as elitism. Again John displays power when he continuously finishes off Carol's sentences in the first act. Carol strives for political correctness when she seeks Justice for what John has done. Director John Harrison made the set simple because of the budget and for effect. He does add one symbolic twist, there is a mock tree in the background and in the first act a rich, golden light is cast upon it; this is in contrast to the atmosphere and how John is feeling. At the beginning of act two the light has changed to a dark green and this again symbolises John's feelings, the atmosphere and the hostile intentions Carol has for John. In act three the light cast upon the tree is a very dark blue and this symbolises the throbbing hatred John has for Carol. Also the only other lighting in act three was an overhead strip light which gives the feeling of an interrogation room. Harrison also used a raked stage with a small wharf at the end, which was not raked. The raked sage was used so the audience could see better and the seating arrangement was quite steep which made the audience's view even better. Another method used by Harrison was to change John's appearance in each act. In act one John is dressed smartly. He is wearing a suite with a tie and

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Trinity and Cypher Essays

Trinity and Cypher Essays Trinity and Cypher Paper Trinity and Cypher Paper Movies are wonderful things; they can inspire, spark debate, and even make you believe in what you are seeing. Virtual Reality is a creation of a highly interactive computer-based multimedia environment in which the user becomes a participant with the computer in a virtually real world. This is what the Matrix really is. In the opening scenes we are introduced to only a few of The Matrixs main characters. Firstly, we overhear 2 mysterious, secretive voices, male and female. Morpheus believes he is the one. Do you? It doesnt matter what I think. We do not know who they are at this point however, later it becomes clear that it was Trinity and Cypher on the phone, and that the phone was being tapped by the agents, who learn of Trinitys whereabouts and seek her out. The first character we visually see is Trinity, sitting at a computer, wearing a tight black latex cat suit, little does she know that there are policemen gathering outside the door to her hotel room. The police kick the door down and Trinity doesnt move. As one policeman advances to arrest Trinity, the action begins and we see Trinity as highly trained in the martial arts. She knocks the policemen to the floor, either dead or unconscious and the scene ends. We now think of trinity as some kind of Fugitive. There are some special effects in this scene, which I shall look at later. Trinity means a group of three. The character is part of the Neo-Trinity-Morpheus group, and also part of the Neo-Trinity-Cypher love triangle. The name could also refer to the Christian Trinity (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). You can tell that the Agents are the baddies instantly. They seem robotic, and powerful and very stereotypical, they wear black suits and dark sunglasses. Do they have something to hide? They walk and do things in unison with each other, this perhaps shows that they are robots and are controlled as a unit? Agent Smith is obviously the leader, as he gives out the commands; the other two agents that we see him with in the first scenes obey without question. All the agents wear earpieces and receive messages through these. Are they being told what to do by someone else? Or are they being told what to do by the Matrix? Agent Smith the name of the main Agent in the movie. Like Anderson, this is a generic sounding name, representing conformity, and the faceless nature of the Agents. Morpheus asks the agent who he is. The agent replies Agent Smith. Morpheus responds with You all look the same to me. Cypher is the unknown voice on the other end of the phone to Trinity right at the beginning of the Matrix. We dont know anything about Cypher until later on apart from the fact that he talks about killing someone and that he works with Trinity. We do not know his name until later on in the film, however the phone call conversation gets the viewers wondering what the film is about. One meaning for the word Cypher is zero. This is funny, because if Neo is the one (1), then that makes Cypher the zero (0). Together, Cypher and Neo are 0 and 1, the two digits in the binary number system used by computers. The two of them are opposing values in the movie, because they are working towards opposite ends. This number reference continues with Trinity as the 3. Therefore there also ought to be a character who is symbolically the 2, but who is it? Maybe it is Thomas Anderson, Neos name inside the Matrix. Thomas means twin. The whole movie is all about dual existence, in reality and in the Matrix. Another meaning of Cypher is a cryptographic system in which symbols are transposed or substituted. Symbolically, this name shows that Cypher is concealing something. Morpheus is first heard on the phone to Trinitys mobile. He sounds powerful and in control, he speaks calmly and slowly. He reassures Trinity and tells her to get out to the phone box outside, in which she can get out of the Matrix. The Matrix uses colour themes, where a single colour dominates many scenes in the movie. Some other movies Ive seen that use this visual technique are The Cook, the Thief, His Wife Her Lover, and Temptation of a Monk, to name just two. The three main colours (other than black) in the movie, in order of how often they occur are Green, Blue, and Red. The whole of the first scene is very dark, because it is set at night. The lighting gives a very tense, dangerous feeling and leaves the viewers on the edge of their seats. Spotlights are used a lot in the first scene, whilst following the policemen; the only lighting given off is from their torches. The viewers can only see what the policemen can see; therefore it makes them feel part of the action. In the real world, there is usually a blue tint on everything, whereas in the matrix, they use green tints. The green colour theme starts at the very beginning of the movie, and it is the most often used theme. The green-on-black theme may be a reference to old monochrome computer monitors, which often displayed green on a black background. The green inside the Matrix symbolises computers and artificial intelligence. It makes everything look quite creepy and unreal. The opening scene, which is very dark creates a sense of foreboding and uneasiness. I think you can say that RED would be the colour that represents sacrifice for freedom. (RED usually indicates blood, which is usually a requirement for freedom) Red pill = freedom Red woman = by longing for the woman in red Neo risks his freedom in taking a second look and almost getting shot by an Agent Red blood = end of the movie, when he bleeds and becomes freed from his mind and becomes The One Red pod = when he wakes up and sees the red stuff around him, he becomes freed from the enslavement of the Matrix. Sound is a major issue in The Matrix. There are many sounds in the first scene that set the mood of the film. Computer bleeps, keyboard tapping etc. Many of the sounds we hear are voices. The voices of Trinity and Cypher on the phone, and Morpheus cool and reassuring voice, when he talks to trinity on her mobile. There are also a whole range of sound effects and music. These are what I shall concentrate on. There are a lot of diegetic sounds in the first scenes of The Matrix. Gunshots, the sound of feet running, footsteps, the Agents car pulling up to the hotel etc. All of these sounds add to the realistic atmosphere of the film.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Finance Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Finance Questions - Essay Example Enron established several limited liability special purpose entities which kept inflating its stock price untill the scandal was discovered. Similarly, Satyam, an Indian IT firm was found guilty of forging account books by creating fictitious assets in a sister company. 3. The concept of time value of money can be used to calculate the monthly installment to be paid for a mortgage for a given time period. Similarly, if a person can’t pay more than a certain amount per month, the number of years of payment of mortgage can be calculated using the time value of money. 4. The primary risk for investment in bonds in interest rates. Hence, in a rising interest rate scenario, bonds will give lower returns. Higher inflation also makes bonds less attractive. Other risks associated with bonds are default risk of the issuer, lack of liquidity in the market and provision of call back (Hofman, 2010). 5. Zero coupon bonds pay the entire interest at maturity unlike other bonds and generally give maximum yields. High net worth investors looking for long term investments generally invest in these bonds. Banks and big corporations are interested in these bonds. 6. Risk is incorporated in capital budgeting by either by using a higher discount rate or by requiring a higher annual return on the project. Systemic and unsystemic risks are included by using Beta and standard deviation of the returns. Hofman, Julian. 2010. Bond risks and rewards. Retrieved online 07 February, 2012 from