Corrosively funny, yet darkly tragic; mining everything from the long-since-culled territory of the troubled psyche of the American family to the inexplicable malaise of Midwestern life, "August: Osage County" is the best play to come out of American theater in years. It is a play populated by characters so finely and fully drawn, so boisterously real, you feel like you've known them your enitre life after only three and a half hours (and, yes, I use the word "only" -- I could've easily watched another two hours of this play). I walked into the Music Box Theater having heard all the hype and accolades for this play, so my ultimate appreciation for what was performed is no surprise. What was a surprise was the sheer range of emotions I experienced during the production; how I could go so effortlessly from combustible bouts of laughter to tears streaming down my stitched up and still-healing face.
The premise isn't revolutionary, the dense plotting is: Violet Weston (magnificently portrayed by Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons) calls the family together when her husband, Beverly, an award-winning poet, has gone missing. Her three daughters, Barbara, Ivy and Karen, along with their various husbands, boyfriends and children arrive and proceed to fill up the ghostly Weston homestead which is haunted by the tragedies of its inhabitants as well as years of neglect. Violet is a pill-popping, emotionally disturbed wife and mother (think a combination of Katherine Hepburn's Mary Tyrone and any mother role in a Nicky Silver play). She's irrational, combative, verbally abusive and has an multi-pronged agenda. Ironically, she also has cancer of the mouth.
The Weston daughters have each taken a different role in life: Barbara has escaped the Weston manse and built herself up as an intellectual, yet is mired in a disaster of a marriage with a rebellious daughter in tow. Ivy has given up on a life of her own in order to care for her ailing parents, but has recently found a reason to get up in the morning. And Karen lives in a fantasty world of her own imagination, abused by men and accepting of their faults if they even marginally fit into her paradigm of conventionality. Johanna, a young Native American (don't say "Indian"...) woman hired by Beverly Weston to care for the house, serves as the one character who is utterly normal. She had a conventional, traditional Native American upbringing. Her parents were a loving couple, supportive of their daughter and her way of scraping by off the land and by her wits is admirable. In a certain way, she proves to be the most "American" of them all.
Through the course of the three-act play, secrets are revealed, relationships are highlighted and everything from drug addiction, depression, incest, physical and verbal abuse to divorce, marriage, racism and the unique particularities of American poetry is explored. Tracy Letts combines elements of physical comedy with conventional tragedy in order to produce a new slant on an old story. The play seems to build upon itself into a dynamo, finding temporary solace in a peaceful aftermath, then catapults itself and the audience into the abyss. There are elements of the sitcom and even the (much-derided on this board) soap opera, all of which coalesce with more traditional elements of theater to produce something magical and utterly captivating. The Weston family is at a turning point and the audience has a front seat view into their dysfunction.
The role of Violet Weston is something of a dream part for any actress of a certain age. When this film is cast, there will inevitably be a protracted and bloody battle for it. While it seems like an obviously Meryl-type role, I could see Glenn Close, Ellen Burstyn or any number of actresses pulling it off. Deanna Dunagan, who won the Tony for playing the role which she also originated, would be inspired casting as would the retention of the incomparable Amy Morton who was nominated alongside Dunagan for her portray of the oldest Weston daughter, Barbara, a key role of the play. Parsons, who is 80 years old, commands the stage like a woman in her 40's. She doesn't miss a beat, infusing Violet with a darkly comic sensibility and an almost scarily-focused mania during Violet's near-catatonic bouts of drug-addled stupor. Her final moment of the play is quietly devastating. Brian Kerwin brings much-needed levity as the skeezy fiancee of the youngest Weston daughter. It's a character we've seen him play before (on "One Life to Live", most recently), but it works well here. Jim True-Frost's portrayal of Little Charles, the sweet man-child, is very affecting.
Todd Rosenthal's set design complements the concept of a habitation beset by tragedy and secrets with a set that looks like a huge, disturbed doll house, complete with almost every room imaginable (dining room, study/library, living room, kitchen, attic), climbing on top of each other in a labyrinth of the Plains. The architecture of the house makes it seem like the Westons are stuck in the early 1900's, even though the play is set in 2007. Ana Kuzmanic's lighting scheme is conducive to elements of the play that are very important. The blinds of the Weston house have been taped back for years, so one cannot distinguish between day and night. The original score, which bursts into life during the seamless scene transitions, is subtle and knowing.
Tracy Letts' brilliantly multi-layered play is destined to be read alongside such classics as Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class. The current production on Broadway is an absolute must-see.
Edited By flipp525 on 1221058014
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
