August: Osage County

I went to a preview of the play August: Osage Count last night. First it is a long play at almost 3 hours in length, and it has 13 characters. The play is almost Shakespearean in it complexity with the number of plot lines running through the play.

The play is about the Weston family. The patriarch, Beverly, starts the play by hiring a house keeper for him and his wife, Violet. He admits that he is partial to drink while Violet has problems with pills. After doing this he disappears, and is soon found in a local lake---drowned. This brings his three daughters home for the tragedy.

The youngest daughter, Karen, comes with her philandering fiancee, Stave. She is proud of the things she will have when she will be wed,and is not really involved with the family.

The middle daughter, Ivy, has not moved away from the family home. Her mother is never satisfied with her appearances, and is always criticising her cloths and life style. She does not appear to have "a man in her life".

The oldest daughter, Babara, has it all. She comes with her husband, Bill, and teenage daughter, Jean. However, the husband is there to just support her in her time of grief; he has been living with another woman and is seeking a divorce. While the daughter is in full rebellion.

At the wake, Barbara challenges her mother's dependence on pill. She has everyone search the house for hide drugs, and calls in a doctor.

Things fall apart when the Steve makes a pass at Jean. His fiancee leaves with him blaming the family for the situation.

Ivy's developing relationship with her cousin is then revealed. She is planning to move to New York with him, but this falls apart when his blood relationship to her is revealed.

Finally, Babara's personal life is revealed to her mother, but she also discovers her mother's involvement in her father's death. This drives her from the house leaving her mother with only the housekeeper to take care of her.

This performance of the play was an earlyl performance of a touring company. While the company has been working on it for some time, there is still work that needs to be done on it. One of the actors obviously dropped several of his lines. Also Violet was played by Estelle Parsons. Her performance was very similar to Roseanne's mother, who she also played on television.

Over all this was a good performance of a good play.