Ole, Oleanna

The title ‘Oleanna’ is said to be an allusion to a 19^th century society in Pennsylvania. This society called Oleanna was named after a Norwegian called Ole Bull, a famous violinist and founder of this utopian society. Some say that it was his wife, but according to the website Why Oleanna (http://www.oleannaonbroadway.com/why-oleanna.html) it was his mother that was called Anna, together creating the name Ole-Anna. This man, Ole Bull, wanted to leave his print in America and so he bought 11000 acres of land in Pennsylvania for Norwegian immigrants to settle, in 1852. On this specific land, four fiefdoms were developed and one of them was called Oleanna. Hence, people came in masses to claim the new and free land. Ironically, the land was located in a valley between thick forests, making it unsuitable for farming. The community failed to exist and by the middle of the 1850s the colonists all returned home or settled somewhere else in America.

Shortly after the failure of the community of Oleanna, a satirical folk-song was written in Norwegian about this crisis. It was later translated to English and performed by Pete Seeger, which went a little like this:

The first verse:


Oh to be in Oleanna,

That's where I'd like to be


Than to be in Norway


And bear the chains of slavery.

In the drama itself, David Mamet included this verse as an epigraph to the play, creating an ironic and sarcastic comment about people’s goals in life and their need for more. In striving for something, people loose themselves in ambition and don’t get to be satisfied when they got what they wanted. This can be interpreted into the last line of the play spoken by Carol ‘Yeah… that’s right’.