August: Osage County
National Theatre, London
SINCE the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, there’s been a new atmosphere of hope radiating out of that country. Quite suddenly, America’s international image has got a really big boost. But how does the best American drama see that divided country? An interesting answer is provided by Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, which was a massive Broadway hit and is now visiting the National Theatre in London.
Set in a huge Oklahoma house, which Chicago’s Steppenwolf company is so proud of that it gets a picture to itself in the programme, the play is an epic family drama. When the drunken patriarchal poet Beverly Weston goes missing, his pill-popping wife Violet summons home her three daughters: Barbara, Ivy and Karen. As they arrive, with husbands, lovers and offspring in tow, the scene is set for the kind of anguished truth-telling that reminds you of American greats such as Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee.
Lasting about three-and-a-half hours, the play has plenty of time to develop this family drama, and the result is both absorbing and moving. When I saw it, the audience broke into cheers when Barbara, the eldest daughter, finally stands up to her monstrous mother, the larger-than-life Violet. Of course, there’s also a feeling that Letts is cramming a lot in: one subplot, when Steve, Karen’s fiancé, tries to seduce Barbara and Bill’s teenage daughter Jean, is probably one subplot too many.
Still, this is a small criticism. In general, what is so appealing about Letts’ drama is the way that the author sets up one situation after another in which he offers the audience a hopeful conclusion and then proceeds to snatch each one away, right up until the piece’s bleak ending. With as many plot twists as an epileptic rattlesnake, the play creates an indelible picture of both a family and a nation.
Letts’ vision is a nihilistic one. The Weston family is irredeemable; and so, with just a mild slight of a metaphoric hand, is America. Riven by conflict, there is no healing there. But if, after all the comic one-liners and joyfully over-the-top confrontations, the ending is resonant with devastation, what does this say about the US? Well, it delivers a verdict on the George W Bush years that leaves the taste of ashes in the mouth.
For this reason, August: Osage County already feels a little dated. With the world’s hopes now pinned on Obama, surely the Bush years – and his legacy of destructiveness – are now history. Nevertheless, there’s much to enjoy in this production, which is directed with enormous verve by Anna D Shapiro and boasts a cast headed by Deanna Dunagan (Violet) and Amy Morton (Barbara), plus 11 others.
Even if Letts’ account of a morally bankrupt family – and nation – seems already past its sell-by date, this is still one of the best plays currently on the London stage. Oddly enough, it is also very traditional in its form, character and dialogue. But maybe there’s something to be said in favour of old-fashioned theatre when the result is as resonant and exciting as this. If August: Osage County shows America as a country in decline, it also simultaneously exalts in its dramatic heritage.
Aleks Sierz
