Gammage Goers - Alumnus

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
By Gammage Goer Pam
Reviewed on January 5, 2010

 The holidays may be over, but experiencing this production is like finding a post-season gift for the Gammage theatre-goer. Hyped by rave reviews, coveted awards, star actor-turns and word-of-mouth buzz, audience expectations run high. And what to think about that three hour, twenty-minute running time? For all that sitting, should I wear my back brace or my elastic-waist pants? Does the show really need to run that long? Is the dramatic action sustainable? Can our expectations possibly be met? Yes. Almost Yes. And  a resounding Yes again. Tracy Letts’ play is that compelling and director Anna D. Shapiro’s production is that powerful.

 By now you probably know that the play centers on the extended Weston family, a group that indeed manages to put the “fun” in “dysfunctional”. (There’s a helpful family tree in the playbill to assist us in sorting out relationships.) This is a big cast and the author is adept at writing both large scenes with the whole clan on stage, as well as intimate two-person scenes. The action moves with cinematic fluidity across the architecture of the three-story home that resembles a doll-house cutaway, aided by David Singer’s soulful bluesy-jazz score and Ann G. Writson’s tightly focused lighting.

 Now, in this “well-made” three-act play with two intermissions (and when was the last time you experienced that with a new play??) the roots of American theatrical realism are strong: from LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, searing family drama. From CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, desperate confrontations. WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? gives us eviscerating comedy. There’s the sisterly bond of CRIMES OF THE HEART and BURIED CHILD’s enigmatic secrets. We recognize characters that remind of us Mary Tyrone, Big Daddy, George and Martha, Lenny, Meg and Babe, Dodge and Vince. These dramatic “echoes” are framed within the familiar topic of “The American Family” that has consumed so many of our best dramatists.

 However, in the spirit of  “everything old is new again”, playwright Letts manages to absorb this literary heritage to advance his own theatrical objectives, creating a modern epic of poisoned bodies, breaking hearts and dreams gone dry. And if Act III’s plotting starts to sprawl as wide as the Oklahoma plains or if we wander a bit too far for a bit too long from our protagonist Violet, well, we can cut the author a little slack. After all, how many of us used to find pleasure on a Sunday night viewing the wild and wooly Sopranos family opera? And we can be confident, I promise you, that Mr. Letts will bring the dramatic action to a satisfying…if not devastating…conclusion.

 High praise for the acting company, a uniformly gifted ensemble that tears into this text with gusto, led by the American treasure Estelle Parsons. I’m hoping my Gammage-Goer colleagues will provide you with more actor details, though, because I’d like to concentrate on the work of the director, Anna D. Shapiro, who has staged this play with insight, flair and compassion.

 Firstly, she has masterfully released her actors to discover the emotional life of each character, striking a balance between bombast and vulnerability and creating characters that are large enough in scale to fulfill Letts’ plot, yet specific enough in moment-to-moment action to make each authentically human.

 Her story-telling is brilliantly paced, suggesting the violence and longing that lurk just below the surface, then allowing us to forget them with some choice comic pointing, and then ….Wham!...startling us when they unpredictably erupt.

 Ms. Shapiro creates visually satisfying compositions on Todd Rosenthal’s nook-and-cranny-filled floor plan: the set doesn’t seem too big for the intimate scenes, nor do the crowd scenes seem scrunched. And, oh, I could have died and gone to Chekhov Heaven with her exquisite staging at the top of Act III!

 Also impressive: her “second unit” work, i.e., the times a character is engaged in physical action on stage even when not in the scene being played. Watch especially Johnna (DeLanna Studi) working in the kitchen or reading in her third floor room, like a guardian angel of the Weston household overseeing events as they swirl uncontrollably below.

 This production proves my “what makes good theatre” math theory: conflict + emotion + spectacle = entertainment. My students reading this will probably laugh to be reminded of this equation. I’ve been thinking of them as I prepare to teach a course in Modern Drama one final time before retiring for real. I have been inspired by this performance: in my love for the theatre, in my respect for its artists and in my awe of the power and joy of live theatre performance. It’s a fine way to feel about a career choice at the end of forty years!

 I digress…Go see for yourself.  And get back to me! I’ll be eager to hear what you think.