Susan Granger’s review of “August: Osage County” (Imperial Theater ’07-’08 season)
Tracy Letts’ gloriously massive, dysfunctional family drama dominates the Broadway season so far – after making its debut at Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theater.
“Life is very long,” says poet/patriarch Beverly Weston (Dennis Letts, the playwright’s father), quoting T.S. Eliot in the prologue, adding “The world is gradually becoming a place where I do not care to be anymore,” courtesy of John Berryman.
Left behind is the emotional baggage carried by his cantankerous, fractured family. There’s his resentful, venomous, pill-popping wife, Violet (Deanna Dunagan), and their three grown daughters: exasperated, menopausal Barbara (Amy Morton), whose husband (Jeff Perry…a.k.a. Meredith’s estranged dad on “Grey’s Anatomy”) has left her and their precocious, pot-smoking 14 year-old Jean (Madeleine Martin) for the affections of one of his students; Karen (Mariann Mayberry), who is ostensibly engaged to Steve (Brian Kerwin); and Ivy (Sally Murphy) who has a new lover. There’s also Violet’s vulgar younger sister Mattie Fae (Rondi Reed), her henpecked husband Charlie (Francis Guinan) and their slow-witted adult son, called Little Charles (Ian Barford). Eventually, Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (Troy West) appears and it’s no surprise that he was once Barbara’s high-school beau.
“This is the Plains…some spiritual affliction, like the Blues,” we’re told. Secrets (incest, adultery, etc.) are revealed and relationships are ruined, as the three-story, rural Oklahoma homestead – with a Cheyenne Indian housekeeper (Kimberly Guerrero) ensconced in the attic – in which the fast-paced drama unfolds, is brought to life by energetic director Anna D. Shapiro and inventive production designer Todd Rosenthal.
Tracy Letts’ characters are psychologically believable and his acerbic dialogue is top-notch. The performances are flawless, obviously having been honed by the actors having worked together in repertory, making the three-hour and 20-minute running time fly by.