Review: Family Dysfunction Plays Out in SBCC’s ‘August: Osage County’
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/102112_review_sbccs_august_osage_county/
By Justine Sutton, Noozhawk Contributor
When you were a kid, did you ever go to a friend’s house for dinner, and their family was so appallingly screwed up that you felt thankful for your own, whatever faults they may have? August: Osage County at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre is like a three-hour-plus version of that dinner.
Written by Tracy Letts, the play debuted in 2007, ran on Broadway and went on to win Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. The genre might best be described as “tragicomedy,” with an unmistakable sense of humor, but that humor being unmistakably dark.
Even though it is all about family, this show is decidedly not family-friendly. This family itself is not family-friendly. The matriarch’s addiction to painkillers and merciless meanness, language that would make a sailor blush, dark secrets of many varieties — this family is the black sheep of families.
Which is not to say that this is not an extremely well-produced play. In the capable hands of director Katie Laris, Theatre Arts Department co-chair, and a talented bunch of actors, the SBCC Theatre Group production is beautifully staged, directed, acted and lit. The set, the three-story interior of the family’s ancestral home, is gorgeous.
In the central role of Violet, the tyrannical mother, Susanne Marley reprises the role she played on Broadway 60 times as understudy. She throws herself wholeheartedly into the part, with an impressive ability to portray the stumbling, drugged stupor in which Violet so often functions. And yet, when she is sharp, her tongue could cut glass, as she viciously attacks each family member in turn.
Her three daughters, Karen (Tiffany Story), Ivy (Jenna Scanlon) and Barbara (Anne Guynn), bear the brunt of her bile. Each is of a different type — flighty, introverted and dutiful — and the three actresses play off one another and the other characters extremely well.
Leslie Ann Story is spot-on as Violet’s loud and opinionated sister, Mattie Fae. As her husband, Charlie, David Holmes is solid as an often mousy but ultimately take-charge guy. Justin Stark is effective as their son, Little Charles, who quietly and apologetically suffers enough verbal abuse by his mother to hint that she is warming up to be like Violet before long.
As Barbara’s husband, Bill, Jeff Mills does a fine job as the patient son-in-law trying to make the best of an explosive family gathering while tormented by his own demons. SBCC student Devyn Williams is their 14-year-old daughter, Jean, flailing to find her own identity within the too-loose boundaries set by permissive parents.
Maria Oliveira is Johnna, a young Cheyenne woman hired as a housekeeper at the beginning of the play by Beverly Weston, the patriarch of the family (Jon Koons). It is through her eyes that we are introduced to the quirks and absurdities of the household, and she provides a steady anchor to the madness around her.
After Bev disappears, the family comes together from far and near, eventually gathering for his funeral. Indiscretions, accusations and scandals are dug up and flung about. Cringe-worthy moments abound, and shocking plot twists come steadily, digging the characters deeper into the muck of their own misery. The harsh language, at first eliciting uneasy giggles from the audience, loses its punch with repetition.
There is perhaps a perverse fascination in the domestic horror unfolding before your eyes here. Like the oft-cited train wreck, it is difficult to watch but you can’t seem to look away.
In addition to being emotionally harrowing, the length of the show itself is challenging for an audience. But like real life, and real-life family dysfunction, not every story can be neatly wrapped up in 100 minutes. The length of the show may then serve to underline the tedium and discomfort of the characters’ situation by letting the audience experience a bit of it.
The cast and crew are to be commended for their dedication and commitment to playing this out night after night. For the audience, when it’s over, it’s a relief to be excused from the table and go home to your own loved ones, who can’t help but appear angelic in comparison.
Performances of August: Osage County run through Nov. 3. Click here to purchase tickets online, or call 805.965.5935.
— Justine Sutton of Santa Barbara is a freelance writer and frequent Noozhawk reviewer.
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