Hot theater for a cold Oklahoma, August: Osage County
Young Bill Young and I ventured forth through the snowy, icy mess into Tulsa for the Sunday matinee performance of August: Osage County. (Actually the Turner Turnpike was in good shape) I am so glad we perservered, exchanged our Thursday night tickets and finally arrived at the theater to find they thought we should have been there on Saturday. But with the help of the Performing Arts Center staff we got great seats on the third row right in the middle!!
The stage setting is a three story cut away house. All the action takes place on various floors of the house, starting with Beverly Weston sitting in his office explaining to the new hired help the eccentricities of the Weston household. Beverly Weston drinks, Violet Weston takes pills. The play unfolds as Beverly disappears; the impetus for the return of the Weston girls, with husband, child and fiance and Violet’s sister, husband and grown son. The return of the family to the Pawhuska home reveals a tinderbox of hostility and every dysfunction imaginable.
The acting was superb. The play program has an article on Estelle Parsons who wonderfully portrays a drugged up, foul mouthed, controlling Violet. Shannon Cochran plays Barb Fordham, the oldest daugher, going through a failing marriage, accompanied by an angry daughter and a desire to strangle her mother (which she almost accomplishes in the second act). Ivy Weston (Angelica Torn) is the family doormat, and Karen Weston (Amy Warren) the non-stop talking, self absorbed, but needy last child.
The play has plenty of comedy, we couldn’t survive the three hour drama unfolding without it. Some of the most memorable lines are the funniest. Most I can’t repeat here because NewsOk might censor the language, but take my word on it.
I’ve read the play but it’s so much better when you see it performed. But if you’ve missed your chance to go see it, head on out to the bookstore, or library and get yourself a copy. (I think they should have sold copies of the play at the play.)
Bill and I talked this morning about how much it stays with you. The images, dialogue and characters linger. Oklahoma’s own Tracy Letts has delivered the real thing with this play, and thanks for letting it come to Oklahoma.
For an opening night review read the Tulsa World.
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Truly a great theater event. It’s sad that more plays do not come to Oklahoma. We get plenty of those musical touring companies, but straight plays are incredibly rare. Perhaps the success of Osage County’s run in the state will persuade other touring companies to give us a look.
As far as reading a play vs. seeing a performance, there’s really no comparison. Still, it doesn’t stop the enjoyment of reading really good writing, no matter what genre or format.
Thanks to PBS and the local OETA, I was able to enjoy a lot of good “televised” theater when I was growing up: Shakespeare, O’Neill, Williams, Ibsen. I was so smitten with PBS’s presentation of O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra that I started reading O’Neil plays. Then I read Tennessee Williams, then Hellman, then Ibsen, then Shaw, then Wilde. Yes, I probably missed alot by not seeing these great plays presented in their natural habitat. But I also gained much from simply reading the words of these great playwrights and imagining the action on the stage.
So…. yeah! Definitely pick up a copy of August: Osage County at your local bookstore.