August: Osage County

By far one of the best plays I've read in a long time, maybe even since my love affair with 'Angels in America.' Bitingly funny and horribly tragic, I've yet to find one disappointed fellow reader of Letts' masterpiece.

I normally don't go to the theater. Can you imagine spending a hundred bucks sitting cramped in a Broadway theater? I feel like I have better things to do and I can't afford the luxury of going to see Broadway shows but with August: Osage County is a masterpiece. When I decided to finally see the show in New York, I was saddened to learn that Tony Winner Deanna Dunagan (the original Violet Weston from Chicago and New York) and Tony nominee Amy Morton (the original Barbara Weston from Chicago and New York) had left the show. In fact, this show can be backbreaking just from reading this play. The story about Beverly Weston, an aspiring writer and professor, who lives with his pill-addicted wife, Violet Weston, in a house in Oklahoma without air-conditioning. Beverly opens the play up about his life and his problems. We hear Violet in the background and don't see much of her in the prologue. The prologue is followed by three acts. Beverly has disappeared in the first act which brings about a family reunion of Violet's sister, Mattie Sue, played by Tony winner Rondi Reed in both New York and Chicago productions and her husband Charlie. Beverly and Violet's three daughters, Barbara-the oldest, married and mother of Jean arrive with her husband and teenage daughter in tow and with a secret, Ivy who has stayed nearby also has a secret about her love life (don't worry she's not gay but that might be better than the truth) Ivy never married nor will she have children; and Karen who brings her fiance Steve from Florida. Unfortunately with everybody and the recently hired Indian housekeeper Johnna who moves into the house all have secrets from each other. Still this show is really about the women characters who are realistic and multi-dimensional. We have rarely seen a show about women written by a man, Tracy Letts, directed by a woman, Anna Shapiro who all won Tonys. As this show goes to London with the original Violet, Deanna Dunagan, and the original Barbara, Amy Morton (both Steppenwolf players) in November, I encourage everybody in the London area who are theater buffs. I'm sure that somebody like Dame Judi Dench could take on Violet Weston but I would have given anything to have seen Deanna in this role. I began researching the history of Steppenwolf theater and the players like Rondi Reed who played Mattie Sue and won Tony for it. I feel like I can relate to the cast memebers. I am enthralled that this play was first about women who were complicated and well-developed. I didn't know Tracy Letts is a man. I just assumed he was a woman from his name but I am amazed at his insights into the female psyche in this play. It's kind of nice to see the men play second fiddle in the Weston home for a change. Anyway I saw this play which is long and can be intense, reading the play beforehand allowed me to know what was going on and knew what to expect. The replacement cast included Oscar winner Estelle Parsons better known for her role as Roseanne and Jackie'

A dilapidated, one hundred year-old farmhouse on the plains outside Tulsa has been the home of the Weston family for generations, and Beverly Weston, the family patriarch, has long found refuge in alcohol. His termagant wife Violet takes pills, whatever pills she can lay hands on, and the two have little in common and have not really communicated for years. Bev, who once published a collection of poetry, now spends time quoting T. S. Eliot, and Eliot's line that "Life is very long..." serves as a motto for Bev in his life. Bev's Prologue sets the tone for the play, and when Act One begins, Bev has disappeared. The family has gathered to support each other while they await news on his whereabouts. A dysfunctional family which represents just about every problem a family can have, the Westons who have gathered are the three daughters of Bev and Violet, along with Violet's sister Mattie Fay, her husband, and adult son. Barbara, at forty-six the eldest of the Westons' children, has arrived with her husband and precocious fourteen-year-old daughter. Ivy Weston, age forty-four, is unmarried, constantly resisting her mother's meddlesome probing and her cruel remarks about catching a man. Karen Weston, the youngest, at forty, has brought her fifty-year-old fiancé with her. In the course of the three hours or more of this play, the family, overwhelmed by the selfish mean-spiritedness Violet, reveals and/or deals with their self-destructive behavior on all levels--from addictions, unhappy marriages, and infidelity, to sadism, suicide, pedophilia, and even incest. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008, Tracy Letts deals with modern sensibilities but writes in the old-fashioned tradition of Long Day's Journey Into Night, Death of a Salesman (Broadway Theatre Archive), and even Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Big, broad, and complex in its development of the family dynamics, the play maintains a surprising level of black humor, despite the level of misery within this family. As the action reaches its climax, and the various characters must decide how they will deal with the rest of their lives, the audience sees that the decisions that are made are the only ones that can be made, given the nature of these particular people and their limitations. It would be a mistake to say that the problems are "resolved," but they are, at least, "settled" for the audience. An intense and powerful drama with enough humor to keep the action from overwhelming the audience, August: Osage County is a memorable modern day addition to the tradition of Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. n Mary Whipple Man from Nebraska: A Play Bug Killer Joe, a Play Biography - Letts, Tracy (1965-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online

When The Stern Librarian saw this show in New York recently she heard lot of debate at intermission (both of them!) about whether Tracy Letts has a written a classic to stand with the best of Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams, or whether the play is a Carol Burnett spoof of those masters. Anyone who thinks this play is nothing but a bawdy of exchange of insults and swears (and catfights about catfish) should read the published play. On the page it is abundantly clear that the poetry quoted in the lovely opening scene by the doomed husband finds its messy, human correlative in the scenes that follow, with language so memorable it deserves to be printed on t-shirts and sold in the lobby. This is a masterpiece from beginning to end, from August to tragic December. The Stern Librarian (I get a lot of reading done in the TKTS booth).

August: Osage County is literally the most exciting play of the year. I saw the play in early January, and instantly fell in love with it. Which is an odd thing to say considering the plays heavy subject matter. It deals with everything from drug abuse, molestation, suicide and other topics that just by letting you know what they are would be spoilers. And while it may seem over loaded with serious subjects, it is a play about a family coming together after the loss of a family member and is filled with so much humor, it's hard to believe that it's a drama. Of course most of the laughter comes out of awkwardness of the situation. This family has their share of problems and they all rise to the surface when shoved together for the funeral. There are dishes broken, marragies ruined and lots of yelling and cursing. If it sounds a little melodramatic, it is. BUT it's written in such a clear, precise way, it transends simple melodrama and becomes something else all together. My only reservation is that the play is very long. It is three full acts. (Running time was over 3 and a half hours on Broadway) BUT it is so worth it. It is able to cover so much ground because it's thorough and no plot of subject is dropped. This is going to be a play that will be around for a while. A true ensemble piece, what we've come to expect from Steppenwolf Theatre. It is a Modern American Classic.