By Myra Chanin . . .
August: Osage County, in the brilliantly conceived and performed production by Palm Beach Dramaworks, is set in 2007 in Pawhuska, OK, aka Nowheresville. Multi-award-winning scenic designer Michael Amico has devised a stunning, full-stage, quasi-symbolic replica of a four-story mid-western middle-class house, furnished with a mix of inherited 1890-1930 mail order-cataloged golden oak bureaus, juxtaposed against incongruous gray mid-century modern angular sofas from Crate and Barrel or The Pottery Barn.
The prologue takes place in the attic/office/studio of Weston family patriarch Beverly Weston (Dennis Creaghan) a onetime well-respected poet turned fulltime alcoholic who now spends his days musing on whether to leave this world by suicide, as did the poets he idolizes, Hart Crane and John Berryman. As he blathers about T.S. Eliot to Johnna (Ryffin Phoenix), a placid, young, Native American Cherokee woman, applying for a job as a sleep-in housekeeper-cum-caretaker-cum-chauffeur, Bev’s missus, Vi (Sara Morsey) interrupts their conversation. She‘s painfully thin, dissipated, disheveled, outspoken, and cruel; also addicted to pain pills—you name ‘em, she’s got ‘em—for muscular problems. Vi also has mouth cancer and needs to be driven to Tulsa by Johnna for chemo. Vi is a horror from the first to the last croak out of her toxic mouth. She was abused by her mother and various boyfriends and has become a cross between Lady Macbeth and Medea. I looked forward to seeing her receive her well-deserved bitter comeuppance.
A week later, the word gets out that Beverly has disappeared. Relatives start arriving. Vi’s younger sister Mattie Fae (Laura Turnbull) and her husband Charles (Stephen Trovillion) arrive first. Mattie Fae has the same toxic mouth as Vi. She constantly criticizes and belittles her son, Little Charles, which really disturbs her husband. Mattie Fae is a stouter version of Vi, and just as full of hate. Imagining what their mentor mother must have been like gives me goosebumps.
Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (David A. Hyland) reports Bev drowned in the water near his boat and wants him identified by a blood relative. Bev and Vi have three daughters. Ivy (Margery Lowe), their middle child, still lives at home but doesn’t accept the job. She’s quiet, sensitive, aloof, plays everything close to the chest, and has several secrets. She’s in love with her cousin, Little Charles (Iain Batchelor), who may not actually be that distantly related.
Barbara Fordham (Kathy McCafferty), Bev and Vi’s oldest daughter, appears next and agrees to identify the body. She’s a Boulder, Colorado, college professor, separated from her husband, Bill (Bruce Linser), who’s accompanying her despite his having an affair with a student. Their 16-year-old daughter Jean (Allie Beltran), who came with them, seems like a serious pothead, which is OK with her dad who also likes pot.
Last to arrive is Karen Weston (Niki Fridh), the youngest and most detached Weston sister. She’s caught up in her romantic delusions and dismissive of her family’s problems. She lives with her sleazy fiancé, Steve Heidebrecht (Christopher Daftsios), who comes up from Florida. Even after Steve molests her niece Jean, Karen maintains her fantasy of happily ever after and agrees to be his fourth, or is it fifth, wife.
I won’t kid you. The play is long. The characters seem hopelessly flawed, mean and rancorous. I didn’t find any of them particularly interesting except for Bev, who died too soon. On the other hand, I didn’t see any audience members not returning after either of the two intermissions. The performance itself was actually enthralling. Every actor had great credentials and proved worthy of their kudos and awards. The play held my attention thanks to the clever way it revealed a series of Weston family secrets.
I understand that Tracy Letts, the playwright (poor thing), based the Westons on his family. OMG! I can’t imagine why he didn’t run away from home and join the army at age 14. As I was leaving, I asked several fellow audience members if they found the characters interesting. Only one did. They didn’t disturb her, she told me, with a smile on her face. All I can say is she must have found a top-notch therapist.
August: Osage County will be performed at Palm Beach Dramaworks The Don & Ann Brown Theatre, 201 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach FL 33401 until Sunday April 16, 2023 https://tickets.palmbeachdramaworks.org
Photos: Alicia Donelan
