Dundonald Street, Hamilton.

*** Only in America eh? About ten years ago things started going a little bit bonkers in the States, and on university campuses in particular.

It seems that a gentleman couldn't open a door to a member of the fairer sex without being accused of wanting to drag her by the hair back to his lair and have his way with her all night -- or at least until he had satisfied his testosterone-driven, Neanderthal lust.

Sexism, racism, alternatively abledism, sizism, classism, and any other word ending in `ism' was rampant and perpetrators were carried to the nearest lamppost by an angry mob and lynched.

Thankfully, although the dogma of political correctness has undoubtedly left its mark, the enthusiasm with which it was first forced down our throats by so many sad, pathetic cretins seems to have wained somewhat.

David Mamet's play, `Oleanna' was written in the early 1990s, when the PC reign of terror was at its height. Set in a college campus the plot follows the changing relationship between a successful university professor, John, played by Thomas Saunders, and one of his students, Carol, played by Kate Huntington.

The opening scene is set in John's study -- indeed the whole play is staged here -- where Carol, is having a one-on-one meeting with John about her studies.

Without giving too much away, what starts out as a fairly typical discussion between a confused, naive student and her wiser mentor is twisted into a nightmare scenario for the latter. So much so in fact that he ends up losing his promotion, his job, his house and his wife. Even worse, snapping under the strain of such preposterous but believed accusations, the cultured academic turns into the very pre-historic thug he never knew was in him and looses his temper to boot.

Both Saunders and Huntington performed well throughout Monday night's performance. At times the acting was a bit mechanical but then this is a pretty challenging script. Actually it's the first time in a while that the BMDS has put aside the knockabout, slap-my-thigh, ooh-you-are-awful stuff for something a bit meatier. Thesps and those in the know always seem to be saying how comedy is so much harder to perform than drama. But surely, in an amateur comedy production the odd fluffed line just adds to the laughter tally. With something like Oleanna any minor slip would shatter the tension and be embarrassing. There weren't any embarrassing moments on Monday night and the two players worked hard together to be pretty convincing and natural. I actually jumped at one point when Saunders barked out a line and the climax of the production was pretty shocking too.

Perhaps because of the shock factor I also felt a little guilty over the fact that I found ending particularly satisfying. Guilty that is until, walking back to the car, my girlfriend said: "Well I'm glad he gave her a good old slap -- she was so annoying.'' Quite right dear.

I'm not too sure how long the cast and crew had to prepare for this play -- it seems that it was only a matter of weeks ago that the curtain came down on their last production. Regardless of the time spent in rehearsal the whole project seemed well put together. BMDS has obviously acquired the knack of producing an evening of good quality, value for money entertainment.

The show runs for the next four nights at the Daylesford, starting at 8. p.m.

If there are any tickets left (there were quite a few empty seats on Monday night) then you should snap a few up.

Gareth Finighan THEATRE THR REVIEW REV