August: Osage County

(August: Osage County at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. Photo: me)

In a Broadway season that is particularly heavy in straight plays, Tracy Letts' drama August: Osage County, has been causing quite a stir. Pretty deservedly so, I’d say, after seeing it on Sunday. Transferred to Broadway from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, where Letts is a member of the company, I thought the show was superbly acted and directed (by Anna D. Shapiro), making the three and a half hour glimpse into the dysfunctional Weston family’s lives whiz by, with the audience laughing quite a bit along the way. It’s very satisfying as a dramatic production, with a large cast, large set and the play written with ample opportunity for showy acting.

In August: Osage County, the extended Weston family gathers at their mother’s home just outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma after Beverly Weston, the family patriarch, disappears and is then found dead several days later, having jumped into a nearby lake. Violet (Deanna Dunagan), the matriarch, is addicted to pills. Her mood swings drastically between a likeable, congenial self and a caustic, rabble-rousing other personality who cruelly makes fun of and scolds her loved ones. The three daughters, Barbara (Amy Morton), Ivy (Sally Murphy) and Karen (Mariann Mayberry), are each insecure in their own way and bring with them to the house their families or lack thereof. Violet’s sister and her husband come by for the funeral as well. Things come to a head then explode over the post-funeral dinner table when Violet, clearly drugged, hurls insults (“truth,” she calls it) around the table. Barbara snaps, physically fights the drugs out of her mother’s hands in a furious drug intervention and victoriously yells “I’m in charge now!” as her defeated mother sits sternly in a chair. The first two acts take place over roughly three days, the last act covers the fallout of the pivotal fight.

No one emerges as completely heroic or villainous here. In family battle, victory is pyrrhic, and everyone knows how to exploit the other’s flaws and vulnerabilities. I liked this complexity: it keeps the characters more real and on the edge, and gave the characters texture. Though eventually everything comes to fall on the matriarch as the manipulator of the family, she shows signs of humanity throughout.

The family drama portrayed on stage is a collection of everything thing that could possibly be dysfunctional about any family, all under one roof: three sisters who compete for the favored attention of their parents (and reach disappointment when they don’t find it), mothers nagging their offspring and disappointment when perceived potential is not realized, affairs revealed, divorces kept quiet, pot smoking teenagers, a new fiancé from the outside who turns out to be a pedophile, and even incest. The effect is darkly comic, you laugh as more and more dysfunction is uncovered.

Dysfunction provides opportunity for some spectacular performances. Deanna Dunagan is brilliant as Violet, the center of the family storm. She plays the role fairly sympathetically, so we go with her when she is smiling warmly at her daughters, and are shocked along with everyone when she explodes later. Other stand out cast members: Amy Morton as Barbara, who becomes the de facto leader of the revolt, but gets her fair share of abuse from Violet and the other family members. I was also impressed with Madeleine Martin, who plays Jean, Barbara's pot-smoking 15-year-old daughter. She's so young and packs a lot of bite in this role.

The show has the kind of buzz that would seem to indicate a sweep at this year’s Tony Awards in June, certainly in the acting categories and very likely in the Best Play category as well. It’s a very large production, well worth the time and money.