A college professor up for tenure meets in his campus office with a young female student who cannot afford to fail his class.

An offer of special help is extended.

Words are interpreted and, perhaps, taken out of context.

Demands are made.

An education is at stake. So are a home and a career.

Welcome to the world of “Oleanna,” and of playwright David Mamet, whose telltale dialogue and sure-handed way with plot never fail to ratchet up the tension. If you’re familiar with Mamet plays such as “Glengary Glen Ross,” or his screenplays for “Wag the Dog” or “The Spanish Prisoner,” you know Mamet has an ear for dialogue and an avid interest in the ways people communicate, and fail to.

Director David DaCosta’s new theater company, Thoroughly Modern Productions, presents its first Bend show when “Oleanna” opens tonight at 2nd Street Theater (see “If you go”).

The two-person play premiered in 1992, which older readers will recall as the era of the Clarence Thomas sexual harassment scandal (younger readers: to the Googles!). In the Thoroughly Modern production, student Carol is played by recently graduated Summit High School senior Bailey Olmstead, and professor John is played by Richard Mueller, fresh off the comedy “Sordid Lives,” also directed by DaCosta.

DaCosta became fascinated with Mamet’s works after seeing a production of “Glengary Glen Ross.”

“I just loved it,” he said. “I love the way it flows, I love the way it was written, the cleverness of it. From there, I just started reading his works.”

He was similarly drawn to the story in “Oleanna,” which takes its name from an old folk song, and is a veiled reference to a failed 19th-century American community started by a Norwegian fiddler, explained DaCosta.

The play opens with the harried professor and the quiet pupil in his office. She tells him she’s failing to comprehend his classes, and he begins to open up, recognizing in her his own youthful lack of comprehension. Or so he thinks. But is he being helpful or paternalistic?

He may just be using the Socratic method as he questions the value of a college degree — a theme that has only increased in resonance in recent years of runaway tuition costs, notes DaCosta — but is John also talking down to a struggling student, thereby abusing his seat of white-male power?

The first act, in which John is interrupted repeatedly by a ringing phone — one of few links to the wider world in this hothouse setting — pays interesting dividends in the second, in which we learn he’s been accused of sexual harassment.

Even reading the play years ago, “I didn’t really see it going the way that it goes,” DaCosta said. “Up until that point, you kind of wonder, at least I did, how much she was in control, how much she was just a pawn from the beginning.” That is, a pawn in a game being run by an unnamed “group” she refers to belonging to.

In that second act, DaCosta said, “It’s like, ‘Whoa! She’s not as naive as we think she is.’”

A newly minted power player, Carol may have an offer of her own that could help John salvage his career, but at what cost? To his credit, and actor Mueller’s, John never seems anything less than principled for most of the play. (Then again, a guy is writing this.)

Some advice: Pay attention to the small details, including Carol’s expressions and actions while listening to John. The subtleties of the script, and the acting “are what makes Mamet brilliant,” DaCosta said. “He’s a magician. He’s got you looking at one hand while he’s doing something else with the other hand, except it’s right in front of you. And then you’re like, ‘Oh, why didn’t I see that one coming?’ It’s pretty good stuff.”

How you react to any message in “Oleanna” may have a lot to do with your gender. In his review of the 1994 film (directed by Mamet),movie critic Roger Ebert lamented that it was not as good as the play, then mentions how he’d heard men and women fighting during intermission.

Ebert doesn’t mention their reactions after the third act, when the “battle of the sexes,” as DaCosta refers to it, reaches a stunning conclusion.

Asked if he believes gender will play a role in how the theater audience reacts to it, DaCosta is unswerving.

“I hope so,” he said. “I really do. It is a modern-day battle of the sexes. Some may argue that it may be a little outdated, and then, I’d bet you, there are some who would argue ‘Nope. It still goes on. You still have the Good Ol’ Boys Club,’ and men from that generation who still think that way, and speak in the way that the character finds objectionable.”

If you go

What: “Oleanna”

When: Opens at 8 tonight and runs Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m. through June 23

Where: 2nd Street Theater, 220 N.E. Lafayette Ave., Bend

Cost: $15 in advance, $18 at the door

Contact: www.2ndstreettheater.com or 541-312-9626