Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Arts Theatre. 20 June 2014
The one thing Tracy Letts did wrong with this play was to entitle it 'August: Osage County'. What a sideways, puzzling name. But it has not stood in the way of this extraordinary play. It turns out to be one of the best new plays of the century. It has been drenched in plaudits, including a Pulitzer Prize. It has been produced and increasingly celebrated all around the world because it calls upon one of the lost properties of the theatre in these days of multitasking and downsizing. It is an ensemble play. A big one.
Adelaide is incredibly lucky in that it has a reservoir of extremely high-calibre actors and a thriving non-professional theatre world in which professionals are proud to work rather than rest in off-season times. The result is affordable good theatre of extremely high standard. The prize right here and now is 'August: Osage County'.
This production is a stunner.
You'd be hard-pressed to find better anywhere.
The play is about a family. David Sinclair seems to have spun his large cast of all ages right into the intimate oddity of family. One believes they are a family. Especially as the story line evolves and the family is gathered chaotically around a real meal at the table, it is easy to forget one is in a theatre and that these people are actors. It is gloriously real. This is the delicious fruit of good ensemble acting.
The play is about the aftermath of the suicide of the patriarch, a poet called Beverly. The family gathers with the best of traditional funeral intentions but there are abrasions, resentments, power plays and secrets. There are new characters being integrated into the family with surprising outcomes. And there is humour devolved from the folly and vanities of humankind.
Tracy Letts observes the nuances of these characters superbly. They are his people, from Oklahoma. The Rep actors play them with rather southern accents but Oklahoma mid-west is a toughie. The southern drawl actually lifts the dialogue and allows the actors ease of excess - which helps a lot with the funny bits. Oh, my. Sue Wylie and the casserole will never be forgotten. I'm still laughing.
Sue Wylie plays Mattie-Fay. She's the mad old auntie, sister to the matriarch, the suddenly widowed Violet who is suffering mouth cancer and is addled with drugs. Nikki Fort takes this major role and for most every minute she is on the stage, she owns it. It's a stellar performance as a wilful, tough, spoiled, manipulating, vicious, vulnerable and sick old lady. At times she is the dishevelled invalid almost incoherent with drugs. At others, wigged up, well dressed and chain-smoking, she rules the roost. There's a lot of love hate and it spears through from the challenges of the oldest daughter, Barbara. The award-winning Helen Geoffreys gives another expert performance in this part.
It is a long play and there are lots of cross-currents and sub-plots happening, many of which give the other players their moment in the limelight. Bronwen James, another notable Adelaide theatre name, intelligently evokes the complexity of the middle child who has never quite fulfilled expectations. Lisa Lacey bubbles in as the ditsy Karen, the one who got away and has come back with a rather sleazy salesman fiancee, hilariously performed by Rodney Hutton. Then there's hapless Bill, the unfaithful and semi-estranged husband of Barbara, embodied sympathetically by a greyed up Adam Tuominen. There's their pot-smoking teen daughter, Jean, most credibly played by Amanda Adamuszek. There's good performance from Tom Carney as dear old Uncle Charlie, a touching performance from Alan Fitzpatrick as Little Charles, a sturdy and moving performance from Melissa Esposito as Johnna the young native American housekeeper and, dammit, a glorious characterisation of the ex-boyfriend local sheriff by Nic Bishop. Interestingly, Bishop bookends the show insofar as he also plays the alcoholic poet father who presents a form of preamble setting the scene at the very beginning of the play.
The costumes are apt, as one expects of Bev George. Dave Sinclair's set is just right in the functional sense, although the weird autumnal tree and the yellow abstract painting could go. The music's lovely western Americana twang is wonderful. Lighting's good. Yep. It's all there.
Don't miss it.
Samela Harris
When: 19 to 28 June
Where: The Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
