August: Osage County
There have been any numbers of people (at least four on this blog alone) who have weighed in on the phenomenon that is August: Osage County. I have been hesitant to add my name to the list. However, I may be the lone voice in the wilderness to convey uneasiness at proclaiming Tracy Lett’s fourth play to be “one of the greatest American plays of modern theater” (About.com). Notwithstanding the superlative cast occupying an evocative three-story setting for a family reunion held under unhappy circumstances, the play now onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre feels oddly predictable. Perhaps, in this age of Jerry Springer and an unending stream of self-revelatory “reality” on television, nothing can surprise or shock us. Luckily, on the journey, the dialogue and deft character delineations for a baker’s dozen characters continue to fascinate.
At rise, we are introduced to Beverly (a beautiful portrayal by Jon DeVries) , a man who is destined to loom over the ensuing proceedings like a gentle rebuke. He interviews Johnna (DeLanna Studi) a young native American woman, for a housekeeper position. It appears that he may be planning a departure from the family home when he cheerfully clarifies that his wife, Violet (an explosive Estelle Parsons) is a drug addict who needs continual attention. His subsequent disappearance occupies the lion’s share of the play thus creating the element of mystery that pushes the plot forward as each set of characters gets its day in the proverbial spotlight.
His far-flung, grown-up family consists of three daughters and their respective husbands and progeny. For reasons that soon become clear, the dysfunctional household they grew up in manifests in their current affairs. Eldest daughter, Barbara (Shannon Chochran) is separated from her professor-husband, Bill (Jeff Still). Middle daughter Ivy (Angelica Torn) who has settled for a timid life near her parents, yearns to run away. The youngest, Karen (Amy Warren), has attempted to erase the ties that bind, having moved as far East she can get, to Florida. Each of them has attempted to salve the wounds inflicted by their abusive parents through their men. Violet firmly occupies the center of this seething maelstrom, and despite each of the subplots, her loneliness in the midst of so much anxiety demands its own attention.
Since it received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, August: Osage County has been compared with the greatest plays of the 20th century: Long Day’s Journey into Night (Drug addiction), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (vitriolic partnership) or even Death of a Salesman (a man felled as much from his own failings as by a changing social environment). In August, the failings exhibited by the pantheon of characters ARE the social environment. They exist in an hermetically-sealed relationship to one another, barely penetrated by the native American, Johnna, the one stranger that Letts plants in their family midst. Although so subtle it is almost missed, her presence as a witness to this destruction may be perceived as a metaphor for the devastation visited upon America’s indigenous population that has resulted in synonymous drug and alcohol addiction, and under her stoic watchful eye, the revenge they have never received.
The problem, for me, is that the play attempts to expose all of these themes in one play. We are witnessing a 21st century melt-down that is as dense, as sensational and as rote as a succession of problems-to-be-solved on “Oprah.” While we recognize the victimization, despite the brilliance of its execution, we are missing the one ingredient that might propel the play to lasting greatness – an emotional core. August may present the most enduring photograph of our times – it grants us pity and fear – but it offers little catharsis. At the end, we feel just as lost, or maybe more so, than when we came in.
August: Osage County performs at the Ahmanson Theatre, 134 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012, through October 18th, 2009, with performances Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices: $20.00 – $80.00 available through the Center Theatre Group Audience Services, (213) 972-4400, or online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org