AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY IS DRAMATIC DYNAMITE

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY by Tracy Letts. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Best of Broadway Series at Curran Theatre, Geary Street, San Francisco, CA. (415) 512-7770, at all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers and at the Orpheum Theatre Box Office (1192 Market at 8th St., Mon-Sat10 AM - 6 PM) August 11 – September 6.

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY IS DRAMATIC DYNAMITE

August: Osage County now playing at the Curran Theater is a riveting dramatic performance that is a must see production. It combines brilliant writing, acting, directing and staging that will leave you awestruck all through its three and half hour (with two intermissions) classical three act format. We have come to expect dysfunctional characters from Tracy Letts, author of Killer Joe and Bug that received recent block buster staging by Marin Theatre Company and SF Playhouse respectively. In this play the violence is at a minimum but no less harrowing although it is interspersed with a great deal of humor as he fleshes out the characteristics of three generations of the Weston family in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

After first playing at the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, it moved almost intact to Broadway winning the 2008 Pulitzer Prize plus 5 Tony Awards. For the road show, Best of Broadway has assembled a terrific cast under the superb direction of the original director, Anna D. Shapiro. The spectacular set (Todd Rosenthal) of a cut-away view of the three level Weston homestead remains unchanged and Shapiro deftly moves the actors on and off all the levels and rooms, often staging two or more scenes simultaneously thus emphasizing the interrelated action of each.

Author Letts is a master of play writing construction and sets the tone in the opening scene with patriarch Beverly Weston (Jon DeVries) interviewing a young woman as potential housekeeper. He is a published poet, at one time a respected professor. DeVries imbues the role with witty pathos matter-of-factly describing the state of his marriage with, “My wife takes pills, and I drink. That’s the bargain we’ve struck” as his wife Violet, (magnificent Estelle Parsons) stumbles down the stairs in a drugged stupor hinting the potential evil she will wrought.

Three adult daughters return, ostensibly to comfort their mother and to help solve the mystery of their father’s mysterious disappearance. Violet hardly needs comforting as she hurls drug-induced acid truths that burn the souls of her progeny. Resentful, unmarried middle daughter Ivy (Angelica Torn) who lives nearby has for years had the unenviable task of looking after her parents when the others moved away, is the first to be subjected to Violet’s vitriolic outbursts. Oldest pre-menopausal daughter Barbara (Shannon Cochran) arrives with her recently estranged husband Bill Fordham (Jeff Still) and their pot smoking 14 year old daughter, Jean (Emily Kinney). Scatterbrain youngest daughter Karen (Amy Warren) brings her unsavory fiance Steve (Laurence Lau) with her. Violet’s abrasive sister Mattie Fae, her much maligned husband Charlie (Paul Vincent O’Conner)) and their son Little Charlie (Stephen Riley Key) complete the family circle.

The home becomes a maelstrom of resentment with bitter recriminations, yet author Letts ably weaves unexpected humor amidst the turmoil alcoholism, drug addiction, incest, adultery, and pedophilia. Estelle Parsons seizes the role of Violet by the throat and is magnificent with a nuanced yet harrowing demeanor. She is matched by the superb performance of Shannon Cochran as Barbara metamorphosis into the mirror image of her mother. She has the best second act curtain line I have heard in years. When she, slams Violet into a chair and blasts, “I’m in charge here now” you‘d better believe it. There is not a single weak actor in the 13 member cast. Paul Vincent O’Conner as a tower of strength finally challenging his domineering wife Mattie brought spontaneous applause. Amy Warren deserves an extra accolade for her extended “discussion” with Barbara that is brilliant monolog defining her character.

The twists and turns keep coming throughout all three acts and this play is dramatic dynamite deserving all the honors it has received and will continue to receive during its San Francisco run..

Kedar K Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com